Is this cup large enough, Mr. Lewis? You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me. — C. S. Lewis

Is this cup large enough, Mr. Lewis?

You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.

— C. S. Lewis

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Madison rated as 5th most bikeable city in US

Free Bacon on the Bike Path during Bike to Work Week 2010

This week is Bike to Work Week which is followed by Ride the Drive this weekend. A happy day for bikers in Madison.

The ranking puts Madison’s score (67) behind Minneapolis (79), Portland, Ore., (70), San Francisco (70) and Boston (69) in a grading system by Bike Score, which “is the only quantitative measure of ‘bikeability’ of location based on the availability of bike lanes and infrastructure, ‘hilliness,’ road connectivity, nearby amenities and the percent of people in the area who bike to work.”

(Source: host.madison.com)

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“I’m a happy old man. I’ll cry my way to the end.”

A powerful collection of interviews between Terry Gross (NPR’s Fresh Air) and Maurice Sendak over the past 30 years. 

Sendak said he never wanted children of his own. He lived for decades with his longtime partner, Eugene Glynn, who died in 2007. Sendak wrote his most recent book Bumble-ardy, while taking care of Glynn.

“When I did Bumble-ardy, I was so intensely aware of death,” he told Gross in 2011. “Eugene, my friend and partner, was dying here in the house when I did Bumble-ardy. I did Bumble-ardy to save myself. I did not want to die with him. I wanted to live, as any human being does. But there’s no question that the book was affected by what was going on here in the house. Bumble-ardy was a combination of the deepest pain and the wondrous feeling of coming into my own. And it took a long time. It took a very long time.”

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You will be forever remembered, Maurice.

Not only famous for Where the Wild Things Are, but a local hero for his set design for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker (by far the best I have ever seen). 

Maurice Sendak

1928–2012

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Whenever we come down with a cold or are just feeling under the weather, we turn to our trusted recipe for Tom Ka Gai from our friend Bob (@hrbrmstr). Hopefully he wont mind me sharing it. Tom Ka Gai (recipe by Bob Ruids) 16 oz chicken stock 1 tbsp peanut oil 4-5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded (substitute 1 lime zest if no kaffir) 4 or 5 2–inch pieces fresh lemongrass, bruised to release flavor 1 inch cube (or a bit more) galangal or ginger sliced thinly 4 tablespoons fish sauce 2 tablespoons lime juice 4 oz chicken breast cut into smallish bite sized pieces 1 can of coconut milk 1 sliced red pepper (thin strips) handful of mushrooms, quartered or some button mushrooms 1/2 onion thinly sliced small red Thai chile peppers, slightly crushed (to taste) coriander (cilantro) leaves to garnish Note: Allow the coconut milk rest so you have think and thin separation (in essence, fat and actual “milk”). Lightly sauté onion in peanut oil until translucent (3—4 min) Add chicken, lime leaves or zest, ginger, lemongrass, fish sauce, mushrooms and do a quick sauté  (1 min). Add stock, lime juice and thin milk* from coconut milk. Heat everything through until chicken cooks. Add red pepper and thick cream from coconut milk. Slowly mix through until pepper is heated (should still be crunchy). Add chili peppers and garnish with cilantro.

Whenever we come down with a cold or are just feeling under the weather, we turn to our trusted recipe for Tom Ka Gai from our friend Bob (@hrbrmstr). Hopefully he wont mind me sharing it.

Tom Ka Gai (recipe by Bob Ruids)

  • 16 oz chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp peanut oil
  • 4-5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded (substitute 1 lime zest if no kaffir)
  • 4 or 5 2–inch pieces fresh lemongrass, bruised to release flavor
  • 1 inch cube (or a bit more) galangal or ginger sliced thinly
  • 4 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 4 oz chicken breast cut into smallish bite sized pieces
  • 1 can of coconut milk
  • 1 sliced red pepper (thin strips)
  • handful of mushrooms, quartered or some button mushrooms
  • 1/2 onion thinly sliced
  • small red Thai chile peppers, slightly crushed (to taste)
  • coriander (cilantro) leaves to garnish
Note: Allow the coconut milk rest so you have think and thin separation (in essence, fat and actual “milk”).

Lightly sauté onion in peanut oil until translucent (3—4 min)

Add chicken, lime leaves or zest, ginger, lemongrass, fish sauce, mushrooms and do a quick sauté  (1 min).

Add stock, lime juice and thin milk* from coconut milk.

Heat everything through until chicken cooks.

Add red pepper and thick cream from coconut milk.

Slowly mix through until pepper is heated (should still be crunchy).

Add chili peppers and garnish with cilantro.

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If you have $5 and like good music, Rosie Thomas’ latest album, With Love, is perfect.  Her new songs frame love as an action as well as a condition, sometimes ruefully and sometimes, as on “Over the Moon,” radiantly. — NEW YORK TIMES Otherwise, if you have a bit more to spend (on say a Mother’s Day gift) … I would highly recommend checking out it on vinyl. 

If you have $5 and like good music, Rosie Thomas’ latest album, With Love, is perfect. 

Her new songs frame love as an action as well as a condition, sometimes ruefully and sometimes, as on “Over the Moon,” radiantly.

— NEW YORK TIMES

Otherwise, if you have a bit more to spend (on say a Mother’s Day gift) … I would highly recommend checking out it on vinyl. 

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Image from PRwatch Arthur Kohl-Riggs is running as a Republican in the Wisconsin recall election primary on May 8. dane101 interviewed the candidate on who he is, what he stands for, and how he is running his campaign:  I don’t think I know what’s best for the State of Wisconsin. I think the citizens of the State of Wisconsin know what’s best for the State of Wisconsin. I think what Walker has shown us in his governing is that he thinks he knows what’s best and he refuses to listen to anyone else. He has a vision and a plan and he will march steadfast towards that goal with no exceptions. He refuses to listen to opposing views. So as governor, I would encourage input from the citizenry. […] I would look for new ways for the citizens of Wisconsin to participate and have a voice in the decision-making of our state. I think inviting outside corporations and outside interests to solve those problems is a recipe for disaster. I think ALEC and the relationship it forms with legislators and corporate interests is a dangerous relationship. If fosters the interest and well-being of outside corporations rather than the well-being of the state, of the people. More information about the candidate and his platform.

Image from PRwatch


Arthur Kohl-Riggs is running as a Republican in the Wisconsin recall election primary on May 8. dane101 interviewed the candidate on who he is, what he stands for, and how he is running his campaign: 

I don’t think I know what’s best for the State of Wisconsin. I think the citizens of the State of Wisconsin know what’s best for the State of Wisconsin. I think what Walker has shown us in his governing is that he thinks he knows what’s best and he refuses to listen to anyone else. He has a vision and a plan and he will march steadfast towards that goal with no exceptions. He refuses to listen to opposing views. So as governor, I would encourage input from the citizenry. […] I would look for new ways for the citizens of Wisconsin to participate and have a voice in the decision-making of our state. I think inviting outside corporations and outside interests to solve those problems is a recipe for disaster. I think ALEC and the relationship it forms with legislators and corporate interests is a dangerous relationship. If fosters the interest and well-being of outside corporations rather than the well-being of the state, of the people.

More information about the candidate and his platform.

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Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day! This Is Just To Say        by William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day!

This Is Just To Say  

     by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

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Just another reason why Wisconsin cows will always be superior! A confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as Mad Cow disease, has been found in a dairy cow in Central California, John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief veterinarian, told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday. Clifford said that no meat from the cow has entered the human food supply, though some dairy cows are slaughtered as beef, and added that a full investigation is under way. Clifford said that the World Health Organization has conducted studies that show that humans are not at risk of contracting BSE from consuming milk. “Milk is safe,” Clifford said. Healthy cows come from Wisconsin!

Just another reason why Wisconsin cows will always be superior!

A confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as Mad Cow disease, has been found in a dairy cow in Central California, John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief veterinarian, told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday.

Clifford said that no meat from the cow has entered the human food supply, though some dairy cows are slaughtered as beef, and added that a full investigation is under way. Clifford said that the World Health Organization has conducted studies that show that humans are not at risk of contracting BSE from consuming milk.

“Milk is safe,” Clifford said.

Healthy cows come from Wisconsin!

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"If this is not the time to speak, when is the time to speak?"

Maya Alleruzzo/AP

Mona Eltahawy (center), a prominent Egyptian-born, U.S.-based columnist march in downtown Cairo to mark International Women’s Day in March.

I heard Mona Eltahawy being interviewed on NPR this morning about her essay, “Why Do They Hate Us?” which discusses the lack of women’s rights in Arab countries. After last year’s Arab Spring she is calling for the focus to shift onto the right’s of women in Arab countries. Among many disadvantages and discriminatory acts against women in these countries I was horrified (as was NPR’s Steve Inskeep) to hear that over 90% of married women in these countries have experienced a form of female genital mutilation. The author’s own mother and mother’s sisters were victims of this abuse. These issues need to be exposed in order for something to be done. 

And we’re in the middle of a revolution in Egypt! It’s a revolution in which women have died, been beaten, shot at, and sexually assaulted fighting alongside men to rid our country of that uppercase Patriarch — Mubarak — yet so many lowercase patriarchs still oppress us. The Muslim Brotherhood, with almost half the total seats in our new revolutionary parliament, does not believe women (or Christians for that matter) can be president. The woman who heads the “women’s committee” of the Brotherhood’s political party said recently that women should not march or protest because it’s more “dignified” to let their husbands and brothers demonstrate for them.

In the NPR interview Mr. Inskeep asks Ms. Eltahawy why “Muslim religious conservatives obsess over women in this way.” 

Eltahawy said women are “vectors” of culture and religion.

“Our wombs are the future,” Eltahawy said. “And if you don’t control the future by controlling women’s bodies, you’ve lost control generally.”

A sad truth. After our own struggle to achieve equal gender rights in the U.S. it seems only right that we should be helping our fellow women. It is not about imposing “Western values.” It is about human rights.

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