November 30, 2003
Big Green Eggs and Apples
I have two new toys in my playpen.
The first is the Big Green Egg.
It's a very cool charcoal grill/smoker. I've been playing with it non-stop for about a week and am totally impressed. When I first started reading about it, I thought there was a lot of hype infused in the descriptions and that this humble egg couldn't possible live up to egg-spectations. It has. And more. The natural charcoal lasts a long time, as promised, And meat tends to emerge from the grill with egg-squisite moistness (OK. I'll stop talking like Vincent Price/Egghead in a Batman episode.)
-- The second toy is a Mac G4 Powerbook. We have a Dell laptop and docking station that we were using for our home computer. But it just wasn't fun to use. I've been hearing so much about OS X that I decided to give it a whirl. So far, I'm impressed. Mac isn't the promised land. I've spent more than a few hours hooking things up and getting my Airport wireless connection to work with the PCs in our house and, most importantly, with Tivo. But now we're turning the corner. I remember the first time I saw a Mac. It was in the art department at the Birmingham Post-Herald in 1986 or '87. I think it was a Mac SE. And we were mesmerized by it as our staff artist put it through its paces. At the time, I was using an Amstrad word processor at home. The Mac really impressed me, and by the time we moved to Albuquerque, I bought the first of two or three Macs that I owned before jumping to PC, mostly to be compatible with the rest of the world. The G4 is very cool on the compatibility front. Most of the setup problems I've been having are related to the PCs. OS X is fast and user friendly, as advertised. We got the 12-inch PowerBook and a 20 inch cinema display. Que bonita.
Posted by Bob Benz at 7:39 PM | Comments (10)
November 29, 2003
Good reads, cool tunes
A couple of recent articles that are worth checking out:
-- The New York Times did a neat piece on the Texas twang. It's from a linguistic perspective, and the mutations and evolution of language always have fascinated me.
-- Sadly, the only thing left of Calvin and Hobbes these days is those stupid stickers of Calvin pissing on a Ford/Chevy/Dodge decal. In Tennessee, we also see the occasional Calvin on his knees praying in front of a cross sticker. Cleveland Scene went out in search of Calvin creator Bill Watterson. It's a good read, though Watterson's J.D. Salinger act seems to be holding steady. Who knows. Maybe Berkeley Breathed's re-emergence with Opus will draw Watterson out. We can only hope ...
-- I recently converted to Mac (actually, I guess I'm a born again Mac user), and I've been playing with their iTunes program and store. I stumbled across a new CD by Rory Gallagher, one of my favorite blues guitarists. Rory died a few years back after his second liver transplant, but his brother has released Wheels within Wheels, a collection of Gallagher's acoustic pieces. I downloaded it and love it. Great stuff, including work with some fascinating collaborators, including Bela Fleck.
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:31 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2003
First flight out ...
I found myself at the Knoxville airport this morning at 5:30, waiting for a 6 o'clock flight to wonderful, frosty Cincinnati. Two funny scenes that made it a little less painful ...
1. While waiting in line to pay for my News Sentinel, a clearly flummoxed man, wife and infant were in front of me trying to pay for an assortment of goods they were purchasing. Based on their accent, I'm guessing they were from the West Indies. The guy was having a real tough time figuring out U.S. coins and how much he needed to give the clerk to complete the transaction. Finally, he held out a handful of coins: "Take what you want," he said with a chagrined smile.
I started laughing and told him: "That's generally the way it works anyway."
I've tried to conduct similar transactions in foreign currencies, and it's always trying. I could feel his pain.
2. After buying my paper, I found this nugget buried back in the local section. It generally annoys me when something bad happens and people say "That's what god wanted." But I'd like to think that in the case of this particular Klansman, it is what god wanted ...
Man accidentally shot during KKK ceremony
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - A gunshot fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony wounded a participant when the bullet came down and struck him in the head, authorities said.
Jeffery S. Murr, 24, of Erwin, was in critical condition Monday in intensive care at Johnson City Medical Center, hospital officials said.
Gregory Allen Freeman, 45, of Elizabethton, was charged with aggravated assault and felony reckless endangerment in the Saturday night incident, Washington County Sheriff Fred Phillips said.
The ceremony occurred about 8 p.m. near Limestone. A 26-year-old Elizabethon man was blindfolded, taken to a wooded area and shot with paintball guns as Freeman fired a 9mm handgun in the air.
A bullet struck Murr on the top of the head and exited at the bottom of his skull, Chief Deputy Patrick Littleton said.
Posted by Bob Benz at 7:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2003
Party time ...
Just a heads-up: We're going to hold our annual tree decorating party on Saturday, Dec. 13. I'm hoping to get the invite together this weekend. If you're out of town and plan to attend, let us know so we can start planning. Click here to see last year's invite. There are links to other invites, going back to 1996, in the left nav on the main page of Opposable-Thumbs.com.
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:56 PM | Comments (1)
November 16, 2003
Doggedly reading Ulysses
While I was running Xena and Ozzy at Melton Hill Lake yesterday morning, Ozzy started acting strangely. He stiffened, nose in the air, and started walking gingerly as if across sharp gravel. Then Xena reacted, too. She was bolder, bounding forward to where the dead fox lay in the field. It's neck was ripped out. Body still steaming in the morning cold. A coyote must have caught it, I thought. I was quick to drive the dogs away from it, thinking rabies thoughts. As we continued through the park, the image of that fox stayed with me. It resonated more than I realized.
I've begun re-reading Joyce's Ulysses, and later on Saturday I came upon this passage, where Steven is walking along the shore and watching a dog that's moving toward him stop to investigate the bloated body of another hound.
"... The carcass lay on his path. He stopped, sniffed, stalked round it, brother, nosing closer, went round it, sniffling rapidly like a dog all over the dead dog's bedraggled fell. Dogskull, dogsniff, eyes on the ground, moves to one great goal. Ah, poor dogsbody! Here lies poor dogsbody's body.
"-- Tatters! Outofthat, you mongrel!
"The cry brought him skulking back to his master and a blunt bootless kick sent him unscathed across a spit of sand, crouched in flight. ..."
Amazing. It also drove home what an incredible writer Joyce was. In fact, fueled by insights from the Ellman biography of Joyce, I'm enjoying this go-round with Ulysses much more than past reads ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:28 PM | Comments (3)
November 9, 2003
Getting the picture ...
After considerable procrastination, I've put several sets of photos online:
1. Jamaica: These are shots from the trip Lara and I tool last summer. I still need to add descriptions for the photos.
2. LornaFest: The going away party for Lorna the snarky intern.
3. Canaan: Photos Lara took during the annual gathering at Canaan.
Posted by Bob Benz at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)
November 8, 2003
Jingles joins the pack ...
When our friend Boogie died, we took in her dog, a scrappy five-pound terror named Jingles. Somehow the name doesn't quite capture the sound and fury of this Maltese. So we started casting around for a new name. And I started thinking of the emperor of Lilliput in Jonathan Swift's incredible "Gulliver's Travels." This was a little man with a big attitude. Just like Jingles. So we decided on a new name for the little guy, retaining his Jingle but adding a bit of attitude. He is now Jingles Golbaste Mamarem Evlame Gurdile Shefin Mully Ully Gue, Delight and Terror of the Universe. Since that's a lot of name for a little pooch, we've shortened it to Mully Jingles.
Here's Swift's description of this regal monarch. We think it fits the newest member of our pack (yes, I'm up to five dogs now ...)
"Golbaste Mamarem Evlame Gurdile Shefin Mully Ully Gue, Most Mighty Emperor of Lilliput, delight and terror of the universe, whose dominions extend to the ends of the globe, monarch of all monarchs, taller than the sons of men, whose feet press down to the center, and whose head strikes against the sun, at whose nod the princes of the earth shake their knees, pleasant as the spring, comfortable as the summer, fruitful as autumn, dreadful as winter."
Yup. That's Mully Jingles. If you want to see a few photos of him, click here.
And if you have never read "Gulliver's Travels," snap it up. Incredible book. Swift was an incredible satirist.
Posted by Bob Benz at 5:28 PM | Comments (7)
The deer hunter
I"ve been walking my dogs at Melton Hill Park every weekend for several years. This morning, for the first time, we saw deer. I'd always seen deer scat and tracks, but never actually seen one. This morning we saw two.
Shots were ringing out over the ridge while we walked, so I knew the deer hunters were over on TVA land. As I rounded a turn with Xena and Ozzy, I heard something rustling up ahead. At first, I thought it was two large German shepherds. But their gait and then their size made it clear they were a pair of bucks. The dogs never actually saw them because the grass was so tall, so we didn't have a chase seen. When the bucks saw me, they split, with one turning back and the other moving even closer. I got within about 30 yards, then he took off over the hill. It was a nice complement to a crisp autumn morning. Most of the leaves are down now, and it really changes the way the light filters through the woods at sunrise.
And the deer were foreshadowed. Last night, Lara brought home a cooler full of venison. Seems a guy who works for her loves cigars, but his wife won't let him spend money on them. He's an avid hunter. I'm an avid Atkins-ite. I told him I'd trade him Padron cigars for deer meet. Can't wait to toss a few of those steaks on the grill. Now I need to run out and get him some Padrons.
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:00 AM | Comments (5)