Comments on: Dream of Rome Book

By: manxcat

manxcat — Thu, 11 May 2006 08:55:31 +0000

Don’t be fooled by the nostalgia and the folded hands. They are Thatcher’s children, and she wrought untold damage on revered British traditions (gosh, even our beautiful red telephone boxes went up in smoke because of the privatised British Telecom…; and if you want to look for where Presidential-style rule entered the homely British political scene look no further than that whisky-swilling old loon.) No, they masquerade under bogus self-deprecation (who am I thinking of? They are his own words and used to describe himself, funnily enough)and cuddly tweed-jacketed parpings about the past. But they are ruthless in the pursuit of power and to be treated with the greatest of care…

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By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Thu, 11 May 2006 05:30:45 +0000

In Tory England, though, nothing ever changes. It’s like Neverland! Who ever gets tired of reading Chesterton, really?

The policy position is that things are bad now because things changed. So if you’re looking for a revolutionary firebrand, perhaps Conservatives are not the best place to start. At least the Americans used to be passionate about their conservatism; apoplectic, slavering, and spittle-spewing, but undeniably passionate. They, also, were wrong.

As a lefty, I welcome the complacency, the nostalgia, the folded hands and the thoughtful “Hmmmmm,” because it makes them so much easier to work around.

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By: manxcat

manxcat — Wed, 10 May 2006 19:58:13 +0000

Let’s be honest, though – it’s the same sort of ramble every week, like being taken out through the same lovely bit of countryside over and over again. Great the first time, perhaps, amusing the second and third, possibly. But yo, it’s May 2006 – are we living in Groundhog Day?

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By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Wed, 10 May 2006 14:18:26 +0000

Only the LAST THIRD is written by the numbers. The first two-thirds are the sort of charming rambles tourists in the Lake country pay good money for.

C’mon, be fair.

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By: manxcat

manxcat — Wed, 10 May 2006 11:09:57 +0000

Not when you consider the amount of cash being creamed off by some MPs in the form of expenses (apart from their salaries and fees for after-dinner speeches, tedious television appearances and the repetitive, writing-by-numbers weekly column). Nice gravy train, if you can catch it…

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By: Xiang Tao

Xiang Tao — Wed, 03 May 2006 09:01:21 +0000

I think Mr Boris Johnson very fine man, I don’t care what he been up to with ladys. This book is work of genius for person like me in HK. Please come back to China and tell truth.

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By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Mon, 01 May 2006 19:05:17 +0000

Garum? Is that what that smell is?

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By: Steven L

Steven L — Mon, 01 May 2006 18:34:53 +0000

Raincoaster, it’s under that pile of stuff in your hallway – your laundry!

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By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 12:55:36 +0000

I had dinner with a well known home cook in Naples last year,and asked her about colatura.She showed me a little ceramic crock with a spigot that was full of anchovies and salt,weighted down.After a few months,she extracts the liquid that is pressed and extracted from the fish-and gets and unrefined liquid[garum].I would guess that a fine straining of the liquid yields the more refined result[colatura],often combined in a jar with oregano or thyme…

That’s a direct descendant of garum, post stolen from eGullet.com. And if that’s not enough, here is an authentic scholarly paper on the subject. As with all scholarly papers, it’s a PDF because academics are bloody control freaks who enjoy freezing my computer. Not that I resent the losers for it. It may well be in The Dream of Rome’s bibliography, but the fact is I put the book away and now cannot find the bloody thing.

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By: Steven L

Steven L — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 12:30:38 +0000

Yeah, someone post the recipe for Garum

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