Poem of the Week

Happy Birthday To Ye!

No one really knows when the Bard was born, but records of his christening on April 26th suggest that April 23rd is his birthday. So many of our ideas about this guy who wrote in iambic pentameter, had no formal education, and who we all had to read in school or otherwise are dubious. There is even speculation as to whether or not Shakespeare wrote all the plays and sonnets which have been attributed to him. Recently, scientists ran his plays through a fancy computer program to compare his work to his contemporaries, such as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and the Earl of Oxford. The only writer who used words and phrases similar to Shakespeare's was Queen Elizabeth I, and she was eventually ruled out.

Wielding about 30, 000 words, like so many swords, Shakespeare boasts one of the largest vocabularies of any English writer. Plus, he's responsible for some pretty incredible idioms and phrases, including "foul play," "as luck would have it," "too much of a good thing," "good riddance," "in one fell swoop," "cruel to be kind," "play fast and loose," "vanish into thin air," "the game is up," "truth will out" and "in the twinkling of an eye."

Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Oh My Cod

Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 8 oz skinned fillets of black cod (must be fresh!)
2 Tbsp tamari soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp honey
1 1/2 Tbsp chopped shallots
1 generous Tbsp chopped, fresh ginger
1 garlic clove
2 tsp brown sugar

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients (except fish) in a food processor and process until your marinade has an even consistency.
2. Pour the marinade in a dish with enough room for both fish fillets. Add fillets and make sure the fillets are coated with marinade. Refrigerate the fish in the marinade for at least 30 minutes or as long as a few hours.
3. Place the fish and the marinade in a pan over medium to medium high heat and cover the pan. The cooking time will vary depending upon the thickness of your fillets. Fish requires about 4-6 minutes of cooking time per inch. If the fish begins to flake, it's already overcooked - so watch carefully. Serve with as much or as little of the sauce as you like.
* Garnish with grated carrots or cucumbers and avocado.

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

So food prices are soaring even though we (the US of A-holes) are producing more corn than ever. The catch is that we are using much of this corn to produce ethanol - fuel which does not really free us from oil dependence on countries which still practice female mutilation and other pleasantries. Nor does this ethanol substantially lower our carbon footprint. So staples like wheat and other grains are at an all time high.

I don't wish to make light of the food riots or the terrifying fact that our water and food supply are dwindling, but I have become shamefully obsessed with a new game which I enjoy playing on my expensive laptop in my first world bed with a full stomach. It's painfully addictive - so be sure to have snacks at hand as you entertain the ridiculous idea that your mindless computer-clicking could possibly be philanthropic.

Check out the fun at www.freerice.com

Poems of The Week

Two     For     One

For     One     Too





Go     For     Broke

  Forgo       Broke



by Cristina Paul

Vegetables are SWEEEEEEEET! Loaf

Sure to make the aunts whisper and the uncles rub their bellies
Will feed 6 uncles or 8 aunts

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
dash of allspice
1 3/4 cup grated zucchini (about 1 large zucchini)
1/2 cup grated carrots
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup molasses
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9x5x3" loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. Whisk flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices together in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Emulsify wet ingredients by processing the oil, molasses, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until well blended in a food processor fitted with a pastry blade.
4. Once the wet ingredients are emulsified, pour them into an electric mixer and gradually add the dry ingredients while beating at low speed until just combined.
4. Stir in the carrots and zucchini.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
6. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes clean. Err on the side of the loaf being under done! Cool on a rack or trivet for at least and hour. This cake tastes best when completely cool and lasts (provided you can resist the temptation) for three days if it is wrapped and left on a counter.

Recipe by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

Videos that make me feel like livin'

Street Dance from Robin Cantrell on Vimeo.

we can work it out from bodycity on Vimeo.

Self Help for Fellow Refugees

If your name suggests a country where bells
might have been used for entertainment

or to announce the entrances and exits of the seasons
or the birthdays of gods and demons,

it's probably best to dress in plain clothes
when you arrive in the United States,
and try not to talk too loud.

If yo u happen to have watched armed men
beat and drag your father
out the front door of your house
and into the back of an idling truck

before your mother jerked you from the threshold
and buried you face in her skirt folds,
try not to judge your mother too harshly.

Don't ask her what she thought she was doing
turning a child's eyes
away from history
and toward the place where all human aching starts.

And if you meet someone
in your adoprted country,
and think you see in the other's face
an open sky, some promise of new beginning,
it probably means you're standing too far.

Or if you think you read in the other, as in a book
whose first and last pages are missing,
the story of your own birthplace,
a country twice erased,
once by fire,once by forgetfulness,
it probably means you're standing too close.

In any case, try not to let another carry
the burden of your own nostalgia or hope.

And if you're one of those whose left side of the face doesn't match
the right, it moght be a clue

looking the other way was a habit
your predecessors found useful for survival.
Don't lament not being beautiful.

Get used to seeing while not seeing.
Get busy remembering while forgetting.
Dying to live while not wanting to go on.

Very likely, your ancestors decorated
their bells of every shape and size
with elabrate calendars
and diagrams of distant star systems,
but with no maps for scattered descendants.

And I bet you can't say what language
your father spoke when he shouted to your mother
from the back of the truck "Let the boy see!"

Maybe it wasn't the language you used at home.
Maybe it was a forbidden language.
Or maybe there was too much screaming
and weeping and noise of guns in the streets.

It doesn't matter. What matters is this:
The kingdom of heaven is good.
But heaven on earth is better.

Thinking is good
But living is better.

ALone in your favorite chair
with a book you enjoy
is fine. But spooning
is even better.

by Li-Young Lee from Behind My Eyes