A New National Portrait

So what’s the brouhaha outside the Men’s Room at the National Portrait Gallery? Did they run out of room in the Presidential Gallery? After all, Dubya’s picture is not there yet. Nope. This temporary exhibit is getting a bigger crowd than the 42 permanent portraits in the gallery combined.

Thought for the Day - 5

If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day. - John A. Wheeler

John Wheeler (1911-?) was a physics professor at Princeton who coined the term "black hole." On his 60th birthday he was honored with a "festschrift" which, if you do not already know, is a book honoring a respected academic (a celebration publication). It contains original contributions by the academic's close colleagues, often including his or her former doctoral students and can be anything from a slim volume to a work in several volumes. Nowadays, a "festschrift" is probably just a series of long e-mails but it's still nice, don't you think? Wheeler's was entitled "Magic Without Magic." This was the only strange new thing I found out today.

U.S. Botanic Garden

Waiting For Santa

Thought for the Day - 4

Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
- GK Chesterton

Sun In An Empty Room

My favorite by Edward Hopper.

Palate Pleasing Pupusas

Today I finally had a good pupusa. For $1 you can choose a pork, bean, cheese, or combo pupusa at the Dona Azucena Pupuseria at 71 North Glebe Road. In case you don’t know, a pupusa is a very thick tortilla pancake with a little filling in the middle. It is the National Dish of El Salvador; in fact, November 13th is National Pupusa Day there. I had a pupusa revueltas (the combo) and it was delicious. Patted by hand and grilled to perfection (grill marks included) then served with curtido (cabbage salad like cole slaw) and salsa roja (not too hot). All this for $1! Of course, I also had to have a plantain - they know how to choose them and cook them so it was sweet, not greasy, and yummy. If you want a cheap and tasty treat in Arlington try the pupusas at Dona Azucena. Delicioso!

Thought for the Day - 3

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
  - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Missed This Mongolian Mammal

Click on the title to find out more about the jerboa. Evidently he lives in Mongolia. Worth going back for?

If you watch the video clip (click on the title above), check out the tail. It is quite nice. I was lucky enough to have seen a duck-billed platypus in the wild in Australia. That was a thrill.

Titian Tree on Key

"...A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair..."

Give 'em hell, Harry!

They must have brought a busload of pantsuited fifty-something females from NYC to the DNC meeting held in Virginia today. That’s what it looked like. Placard (“Hillary”) carrying followers swarmed the Sheraton lobby making it look like there were no other candidates. Ugh! I am suffering from Hillary-itis. After walking a mile to the hotel (no parking in the hotel lot today) and then waiting in the cold for two hours (I did convince two young female Edwards' supporters to listen to Obama’s speech), I finally heard the man speak. Needless to say, he more than made up for his camp’s disorganization, looking and sounding like a president should. "Change we can believe in." The crowd went wild proving numbers don't always matter; the Edwards' girls told me they were converted. And in the end, due to an unrelated hostage incident in NH, Hillary never spoke. Justice prevails.

Crash Test Kitchen

My very favorite vlog (actually, I only know one) is Crash Test Kitchen hosted by Waz and Lennie, a couple of young Aussies who live in London. If you are an Anglophile like I am, these episodes will take you back to England through the kitchen. I just learned a new word from them, too, "collywobbles," as in "watching the Republican YouTube Debate gave me the collywobbles." Check it out.

Waiting Just For You

Like Minded-ness

I want to be with people who think like I do.

Thought for the Day - 2

"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor. " - Neil Gaiman

Now that's discouraging and explains a lot. It turns out Neil Gaiman is a well-known fantasy writer. He also wrote for "DC" Comics -which stands for "Detective Comics" Comics which I discovered last week while playing "Trivia for Dummies." Isn't it funny how some things repeat themselves (words, trivia, history?).

Expiration Dates

Do you ever wonder whether really old people think about how they'll never need to buy another this or that. Like they're going on vacation or something. When you're 86 how long does something have to last. (Now you know why I couldn't sleep last night.)

Click here: Postcard Secrets

Book, blog, and video.

Thought(s) for the Day

Happiness is a place between too little and too much.
-Finnish Proverb

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
-Aristotle

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
-Snoopy

Berit's Banana Cake

I am ecstatic at having found a crumpled old copy of this Banana Cake recipe. It is named after my Danish friend Berit who made this cake all the time in Nairobi over 20 years ago. I had thought my only copy was lost when my computer died last month. But lucky for me (and you, should you try it), here it is:

4 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 c all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder

Mash bananas and set aside. Cream eggs, vanilla, sugar and butter. Add mashed bananas and slowly incorporate remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix. Pour into greased bundt pan. Bake at 350 for approximately 50 minutes till toothpick comes out clean.

We always made this cake with the small, sweet Kenyan bananas (at least 8 of them) which made the cake even better than it is here.

Tastes As Good As It Looks

We had a spiderweb taco for our Halloween dinner last night. We didn’t eat the spider.