Da Pit

Ka lua = Da Pit, literally

Back home the lua is the necessary place. Makes sense, if you think of plantation days and the realities of life back then. Things only get disturbing if one worries about possible confusion as to the purpose of a given pit. All that work, and then - oops? No, no... Surely the olfactory organ would have settled the issue long before such an unfortunate incident could occur... If not, the hot rocks...

Authentic kalua pig, according to my Internet and cookbooks research, is not distributable under FDA guidelines, something about hygiene standards, but that's just cultural bias and techno snobbery... ;->

Authentic kalua pig is really the whole pig, properly rubbed down w/sea salt, laid out on banana leaves, then wrapped in deveined ti leaves, and gently placed on hot lava rocks and keawe wood lining a pit dug 6' x 4' x 3'. It is then covered with more fronds and burlap, all of which is wetted down before being covered with dirt. There it remains, smoldering and steaming, from sunrise till sunset, when it is dug back up, shredded, and served up. Onolicious!

Modern day cookbooks recommend the salt bath accompanied by a bath in liquid smoke, followed by four hours at 500 degree heat. Personally, I like low and slow, and you can take that any way you like...

So yesterday I hauled out my lovely smoker grill, last year's b-day gift, and once again kicked off the barbecuing season. I have learned that keawe is actually the Hawaiian word for mesquite wood, so out came my bag of mesquite chips, better than charcoal and doing double duty. I also happen to be using almond wood logs right now because Bev-n-Mo had such a good deal on them last year... Makes for an interesting twist on flavors...

Did I mention that I love my smoker grill? I'm fairly useless when it comes to starting fires, which is probably a good thing, given my occasional pyromanical urges, but that's another topic... I don't know what' I'd do without my handy dandy chimney starter or my flick and click lighter, either... Use the oven, I guess... I did have the brilliant idea to use the recently shredded cereal box cardboard, which actually worked better than the more conventional newspaper, especially in light of the fact that I was using chips instead of the more chemically laden charcoal. Can you believe there is such a thing as organic charcoal now? What's up with that?

Costco was kind enough to provide (for a price) a fine slab of pork, big enough to make me think of a whole pig without actually being one...

For the sake of my kitties, I refrained from the unconventional use of garlic, though it took all my willpower to do so...

The smell of mesquite filled the air all day and lingered through the night. I don't know that my neighbors are all that fond of me, but there you have it...

By 7 p.m. the meat was fall off the bone tender, which was good, since I hadn't realized that there was, in fact, a bone in there...

It may not be kosher, but it's definitely a taste of home. Onolicious grinds!

Okay, not my deepest thoughts, but surely some of my greatest lovings here. :=)

If love of eating is a pit, clearly I dive in eagerly, avidly. My appetite may no longer be as bottomless as it once was, but there's still plenty of room for this kind of satisfaction, the kind you just can't buy. Ahhhhhhhhh.....................

Big Brother Redoux

There's a proposal in a nearby town to ban smoking. Now, here in CA such bans already cover all public buildings and most privately owned places of commerce. Now, however, there is an attempt to ban smoking in open air common areas and even in apartment buildings. Some folks see that last as discrimination against renters. What I see is the potential for such legislation to be extended to any facilities joined by common walls. Here in the Bay Area, that covers pretty much all of residential San Francisco. What's more, I think that bites.

Now, don't get me wrong - I enjoy a smoke-free environment as much as the next non-smoker. What I enjoy even more is free choice. Some folks say that people who don't like the rules and laws of a particular geographic area are free to move. They apply such logic to tables in restaurants, seats on planes, housing, cities, states, countries... Will moving off-planet be the next option? Realistically, who can afford such nonsense? Fairly, who should have to make such choices and bear such expenses? If I had to move as often as I'm offended, I'd keep a fairly bare cupboard, partly to ease all my moving, partly because the expense of so many moves would leave me destitute.

Since when has the government had the right (never mind responsibility) to legislate personal business so closely? Sure, they've been trying forever, but since when has it been right?

Taking a Hike

Okay, so it wasn't really a hike, but any kind of forward motion has to be better than the immobility that has characterized my first week back. Of course, a loco moco was probably an inappropriate reward for such a meager effort, but it can't possibly have been any more inappropriate than the chocolate eclair yesterday, or the iced mocha thirst quencher later on... Perhaps I don't quite have the idea of healthful exercise down yet. I should consult Max - he oughtta know; after all, he spends all his days and most of his nights in restful slumber, and there's no one I know with a better figure or a more graceful leap, or such loving paws. That's what the world needs, you know: more loving paws to help one know just when amidst life's turmoil to pause.

Day or Night

We civilians live by a twelve-hour clock, making confusion easy enough when sleep is lacking and shades are drawn. Lack of a daily routine can add to the confusion, so it shouldn't be any wonder that disorientation can sometimes set in, especially as age advances.

Cell phones have facilitated communication across distances short and long, which is a good thing, except that connections still aren't 100% reliable. Things can get quite stressful as those disoriented get increasingly distressed without some sane voice of authority providing assurance that everything is under control.

Meanwhile, those expected to provide order amidst such chaos can experience a different kind of stress because of a failure of communications. How, after all, can one provide assurance without substance to support it?

Oblique enough? It was just that kind of day, and night is barely falling...

Kaboom!

Two Cents

Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
- Sir William Osler

For years the common wisdom in my hometown has been that one only goes to the local military hospital to die or to say farewell, so the recent news that military hospitals are providing inadequate care for the injured and ailing seemed a waste of breath. What more, after all, is there to say on the subject? I guess having otherwise healthy youngsters coming home maimed on behalf of a government that is hearing impaired is reason enough to speak up. After all, what is there to lose that is not already out of reach?

Cynical? Who, me?

I guess the school of thought that suggests silence is the only appropriate response to the obvious must take some credit for the perpetuation of such ongoing problems. I guess I'm one of the major contributors to that school. I guess...

And yet, some of the finest people I have met have served in the military medical community. They have done what they could with what they have been given, which clearly cannot compete with the facilities and resources available in the private sectors of contemporary American society. Perhaps if resources were reallocated with the aim of preserving and improving life, rather than taking it, the situation for military medical personnel and those they serve might improve, but that seems antithetical to the espoused purpose of military. Eh...

Full Lunar Eclipse

First one in three years!

clipped from www.latimes.com

First total lunar eclipse in years

From Times Wire Reports

March 4, 2007

The moon darkened, reddened, and turned shades of gray and orange during the first total lunar eclipse in nearly three years, thrilling stargazers and astronomers around the world.

The Earth's shadow took over six hours to crawl across the moon's surface, eating it into a crescent shape before engulfing it completely in a spectacle at least partly visible on every continent. The moon began moving out of Earth's shadow just after 5 p.m. PST. The eclipse ended a little more than an hour later.

So naturally, I spent the day drifting in and out of sleep, totally oblivious to the world around me as I moved from one time zone to another, from a world in which I had total responsibility for all things to . . . my more customary life . . . Were the world to have rebooted, I would have missed it and not known the difference - did it?

Airplane Seating

The first time I rode on an airplane was back in the summer of 1964, when jumbo jets were first coming into existence, and we were all very excited about these big new sky boats that could fit three rows of passengers across two aisles. There were no such things as overweight children then, and we could easily have sat two to a chair, even with the novelty of seat belts. I guess that was a long time ago.

Along with that bygone era has gone such generous seating, at least outside of first and business class sections. This time around I was unable to select my seat until I checked in online en route to the airport, by which time I was stuck with a middle seat. Naturally I requested an aisle seat upon reaching the gate desk. The attendant very kindly did a bit of shuffling, and I was grateful. Little did I know what she had done...

While sitting in the waiting area for a couple of hours, I looked around and realized that most of us had made arrangements for the convenience of those providing our transportation to the airport, meaning that many of us were there a couple of hours early. In particular I could not help hearing a couple of ladies who chose to sit down behind me. The reason I could not help hearing them is that they spent an hour and a half discussing how and why they intended to blog vile things about some of their erstwhile companions who, for some reason inexplicable to them, had abandoned them. Sitting there trying desperately not to listen, I had no trouble understanding the absent party's motivation...

Finally it was time to board the plane. As usual, I took my time. After all, why rush to another seat that I would have to maintain for five or more hours? There would only be more flesh pressing as people crowded onto the plane and over each other to get into their various seats. My plan to delay was so effective that there were only two cannier people behind me, one of whom quickly accepted an offer to trade her seat for a $400 travel voucher, a night at one of the finer hotels in Waikiki, and transportation and meals overnight. Me, I got the aisle seat in the row containing... yup, those two abandoned women, still bemoaning their misfortunes and dissecting their misadventures.

Did I mention that airplane seats don't seem as ample as they once did? I'm not sure which of us has changed dimensions more... What I do know is that while I was able to seat one cheek comfortably enough, the other spent the majority of the trip hanging over in the aisle, bumping and being bumped by passing people and carts. (I know the secret of how to raise the aisle arm to get extra space for tight seating... I confess I don't think the flight crews with which I have flown appreciate my knowledge, but as it was one of their own who once showed me, who am I to complain?) Meanwhile, the animadversions continued. I was near despair.

Fortunately, a child traveled with them. Soon, (if not quite soon enough,) the lights went down and people went to sleep. Rather than risk waking these sleeping dragons, I quietly played my Sudoku puzzles by the ambient lights left on for the flight attendants. Peace reigned until about forty-five minutes prior to landing when the foolish flight crew felt it behooved them to give passengers fair warning about our imminent landing. I couldn't believe someone could wake up and pick up where they had left off, but so it was. Ah well...

Conclusion: airplane seats just aren't what they used to be. (Can't have been me...)

Words of Wisdom from C-3PO

Surfing channels can lead to the most curious finds. The other day I stumbled across a series entitled, When (blank) Ruled the World, that was reviewing the popularity of Star Wars as a cultural phenomenon. All of the original cast members (still living) and a number of fans were interviewed. The three performers most central to the original run, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford, were understandably practiced, even jaded, after decades of discussing what was, ultimately, just a phase of their younger days. There was a definite bit of cynicism in the midst of an informed appreciation of the effects of their early work on both their later careers and on society at large. A sense of resentment and/or resignation is inevitable amidst the almost requisite awe that comes with what media hoopla has inspired. The fact that time has only heightened the mania, rather than decreasing it, is likewise impressive. What I liked best about the whole show, however, was a comment by Anthony Daniels, the British actor who has informed the etiquette droid, C-3PO, through all six films. He quipped, "Now that I'm a Pez and a Lego, I can die happy." That really does have to sum things up beautifully, encompassing the heights and depths of the effects of this juggernaut that has so completely insinuated itself into every aspect of modern society, from crass commerce to the halls of academia to techno inspiration and all the nooks and crannies in between.

Sound Fest End

Just got through listening to the first six Harry Potter audiobooks and I have to say that doing so has been a bit of a preview for reading the soon to be released seventh volume. There's a sense of loss and displacement as it all comes to an end. Now, the author has promised that there will still be much to ponder and discuss once the final volume is published. I have to assume that she hopes to join the ranks of authors acclaimed for literary merit as well as commercial viability, a group too often mutually exclusive. Whether or not her hopes are fulfilled will, in the long run, be determined by how well her intended thematic threads come together and stand up under the scrutiny of time and scholarship. Thus far she has demonstrated excellent skill with pacing, dialogue, and seeding her works with scavenger hunt-style clues. She is wrestling with weighty themes, but whether or not she works them out with sufficient ingenuity remains to be seen. She sound satisfied, however, so I am hopeful. I only wish I could go back and start listening all over again, but life has been neglected long enough and going back right now would be despairingly tedious. Ah well...

Pharm Ad

Been seeing an ostensibly anti-drug abuse ad lately that features four teens in a car cruising for free pharmaceuticals in their parents' medicine cabinets. When I first saw it, I thought the kids looked dweebie. The more I see it, however, the more it looks like they're having a really good time and like what they're doing might be a fun thing to try, besides being extremely cost effective for a budget-conscious teen. Somehow, that seems antithetical to the purported intent of the ad. Now why do you suppose pharmaceutical companies would provide funding to a nonprofit organization to run ads condemning the misuse of pharmaceuticals by teens? The ad even touts pharms as having surpassed meth in popularity for abuse in recent years. Mixed message, indeed!