Something else to feel guilty about

Prozac in fish. Are they happier or not? Who knows? I hope I don't find out what all the stuff I'm taking is doing to, say, Polar Bears or Muskrats. I hate to even contemplate it.

South Korean Spec Ops Hits Pirates

Glad the South Koreans are on our side. Living themselves in a militarily tense situation, they are generally not to be taken lightly. Especially by pirates. Compare to their measured response to North Korea when it does something far more violent, but where a violent response, though politically attractive, would be internationally dangerous.

Now, tomorrow, something stupid will happen, and I'll have to eat my words.

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Update: well, not stupid, but related.

Wear your body armor

Full on feud in Ypsi. "... isn’t considered gang-related" say Sheriff's officials. Depends on what you mean by "gang," I suppose.

Ancient dog remains discovered: dogs don't protest

A National Geographic article (and several others around the web) is reporting the discovery of the oldest unquestionable dog (not wolf or other canid) remains at a site in Texas. The piece of bone was dated at 9400 years old. There are other, much older sites associating dogs and humans elsewhere in the world, but this, if the dating is right, is the earliest in the New World (if you accept that Texas is part of the New World.)

Perhaps unfortunately for dog lovers and of course the dog in question, there was also clear evidence that he or she was eaten by the humans, but in any early relationship there are ups and downs.

What is most interesting is that under the terms of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), dogs anywhere could have demanded that bone be turned over to them for religious and other purposes, as would be the case if the remains had been human and clearly of some native American origin. Non-native remains, e.g. Irish remains; Polish remains; African-American remains; Well, German, but I think my grandfather was from Belgium or maybe Spain remains are not so covered; a patchwork of Federal, State, and local laws pertaining to remains apply, and none that I'm aware of go as far as NAGPRA to permit sheer intervention -- outright removal of the material from scientific facilities and denial of access by scientists -- unless you can prove it's Aunt Tilly we're talking about here. Archeologists with tenure on the their minds or those who rely on information from Native American communities to carry out their work are cautiously supportive of NAGPRA. Those who are ethically disinterested are opposed to it, and are extremely opposed to a new round of restrictions now being debated. It even raises church-vs-state questions, since it often sets government-funded research efforts against religious beliefs.

But since the dogs were clearly here at the same time as the Native Americans (who were illegal immigrants, having slipped over the heavily guarded Bering Straight, when the Polar Bears weren't looking,) dogs today would certainly be upheld by NAGPRA if they demanded that the small fragment of skull be turned over to them for ... well, whatever.

However, a spokesdog expressed no interest whatsoever in the issue, being fully engaged with an analysis of a large smoked beef bone. It is understood that cattle, not being native to North America, have no rights under NAGPRA, but a spokespig for the National Association of Porcine Americans said that unless the upcoming changes in the law recognize their unique status as America's Other White Meat, the formation of a fourth party for the 2012 election was virtually assured.

New weight-gain drug enters trials

Wood-Charles Pharma, the international pharmaceutical arm of Wood-Charles Enterprises, announced today the start of clinical trials for its new weight-gain and artery occluding drug, Ergoporkorol. A spokesman said that the company had identified a large, unserved segment of the health care consuming public, faced with the need to regain lost weight after chemo therapy. In response, WC Pharma is testing a new oral treatment, consisting primarily of pig bits, lovingly ground up, spiced, garnished with smoked ham (which is also pig, of course) and taken as often as possible until desired weight levels are achieved or 80 to 90% arterial blockage occurs.

Reacting to criticism from competitors, the FDA, and the French Government that Ergoporkorol was simply a standard country pate', not very esthetically rendered, WC Pharma's Vice President of responding to surrender monkeys said, "You and what army?"

Creeping ... um, project management?

As the US races toward tyranny and socialism, one thing that has so far escaped the attention of the tea baggery is the creeping interest in doing engineering projects by some form of international (bad word there) standards (even worse.) Now it turns out that the next time the state wants to fix something on a critical bottleneck bridge, on which a screwup would sever traffic up and down the whole east coast of Michigan (i.e., the Zilwaukee bridge,) they're actually going to try to get the contractor to demonstrate that they're competent to do it! Where are our freedoms going?

I especially love the quote, "There will be accountability if there’s anything catastrophic.” (Because there certainly wasn't the last time. The Saginaw News had to FOIA an $80,000 MDOT study to find out that the failure wasn't anybody's fault.)

And if you aren't irked enough by that, here's a lovely note about Detroit not being able to issue property tax bills on time, even though I sure bet the city could use some of that money. The headline is inaccurate: 2000 people have complained, asking "where in the hell's my tax bill?" The actual number of missing bills is some superset of that value.

I'm sorry -- the doctors have me taking all my steroids in the morning, now, and it results in this kind of hyper-active blogging. Basically, I'm assuming that no one else but me reads the news.

Not old haunts

Despite any possible concern over the legal troubles of its prior owner, someone plans on rehabilitating the mid-eastern restaurant La Shish. This is labeled "not old haunts," because I think I was at La Shish once, prior to the dust-up, and was no more impressed with it than I ever am with hummus-and-felafel places. But good luck to them, anyway, say I, because the new name for at least the outpost in Ann Arbor was (and may remain, for all I know) "The Palm Palace." What were they thinking?

I know at least one faithful reader who will disagree with me about La Shish, by the way, and I welcome a more positive review of the place as it was before the owner took it on the lamb (get it, lam / lamb? Haw, haw.) When it comes to that particular end of the Mediterranean, I suspect that I just plain don't get it.

Old Haunts

So every time we drive to the clinic, we go past not only our first apartment together, but the old hospital-district breakfast place, Angelo's. We used to go there a lot, when Angelo himself was still around, but haven't been in years -- like 15 or so, maybe. Yesterday, having a quick walk-in event at the hospital and nothing more, we decided to answer the musical question, are there edible Eggs Benedict in Ann Arbor? (The last time I ordered them at the Broken Egg, the sauce was, ironically, broken.)

The answer, yes. Absolutely yes. The hollandaise could have been just a touch more acidic, but the dish overall was delicious, and at 8:30, more or less, on a Friday morning, no wait in line, quick service, and just a generally pleasant experience. Not clear why this sort of frozen-in-time thing pleases me so much (I don't spend a lot of time at the Fleetwood, after all,) but it does. It does.

Now, can we please have the Kerrytown Bistro back?

Eve the Restaurant is closing, apparently in favor of Eve, the incomprehensible sandwich shop.

Update: and much worse, Baker's is in trouble, too. Sad.

Update: No, guess we don't get the Bistro back. Zingerman's is going to use it for prep work and meetings. The article does, I admit, explain a lot about the issues with using the space as a restaurant, and of course, it wasn't built to be -- nothing at Kerrytown was built for what it's become. Still, it was a damned pleasant place to have a meal, when it was all exposed brick and professional waitstaff. Here's a couple of late-era pictures of us, enjoying the whole thing.

But on the brighter side, see John's comment below about Eve's Washington Street shoppe. Could be good, especially if it's another warm-weather outdoor opportunity.

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Baker's goes under the auction gavel on Monday. And it sold to someone who's going to keep it a jazz club.

Getting pretty complex, here

Further evidence, in case you needed it, that Paula Deen is a waste of oxygen.

Seriously, this kind of advanced cooking technique is way beyond my skills. Maybe one of the local chefs could try this out and see if it sells.

Thanks to Dave Barry's blog for bringing this to my attention.

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Update: Ok,I see the problem now. Clearly some text was omitted in the recipe. Here's what she was really trying to describe, quoted from The Regional Cooking of Italy, published by the Academia Italiana Della Cucina.

"This very involved recipe for brioche filled with chicken and mushrooms from the area of Campania called for homemade brioche called conglufi, two separate bechamel sauces, and making quantities of ground chicken, mushrooms, peas, and prosciutto cotto. The conglufi were baked in small moulds about two inches across and four inches high. After baking, a cylinder was cut out of the center to hold the filling and what was cut out became the "cap." A very thick bechamel would be mixed with ground chicken, egg, and cheese, and then formed into balls. The mushrooms were cooked in butter and sherry, and the peas, just lightly cooked in boiling water and flavored with butter. The second bechamel became the sauce for the filling and (sic) mixed with the quenelles, cooked mushrooms, peas, and prosciutto cotto. The conglufi were stuffed with the hot filling and served immediately."

This makes so much more sense, taken in the proper context. I do a similar dish on weeknights when I'm tired and don't have time for something more complicated.