What I've Read: The Food of a Younger Land

To me the biggest takeaway from this book was something I obviously/kinda sorta/already knew but never thought about in a way like this until reading this book and also having a conversation with my grandmother about its details.

And the big detail is the creation of the interstate highway system. That it was really only created about 60 years ago is extremely fascinating to me. When Dan, Luke and I went to Ireland last year, we laughed that Ireland was just completing its first major sections of its own interstate system, but when I read this book I was surprised at how young our own highways are. Eisenhower was sick of military supplies not reaching the coasts fast enough, so something had to be done.

How the hell does this relate to a book about food? Well, the crux of Kurlansky's book is that before we had interstates (and thus fast food restaurants and on and on) there was a stronger reliance on local recipes, supplies and food customs. Regional cooking was not a craze but a necessity because there was not way of putting a French restaurant on Main Street unless your town happened to have a large French population and access to French products.

Kurlansky doesn't actually write much in this book at all, just little snippets to introduce the recipes, traditions and that were written by writers during the Depression. Back in the ‘30s, the government gave writers, poets and others jobs to write things so they could contribute to the nation and earn a small bit of a living. One of the main projects of the Federal Writers Project was to write a national cookbook, composed of pieces from each state in the country. This way, people in Nevada could get a better understanding of how those in Alabama or Maine ate. It also served as a national record of the times. Many of the pieces are amazing because of their regional perspective and accompanying voice. Several of the writers from the South write with deep, often barely unrecognizable accents, but theirs were some of the richest experiences and food histories based on poverty and slavery.

The FWP ended before the book was completed, so Kurlansky had to piece everything back together and give it some background and setting. And not everyone was schmuck writers, either. Zora Neale Hurston and many other well-respected authors and playwrights were part of the project which was interesting to see. Some of the other highlights, and there were many, was reading about Penn Station in NYC was the birthplace of eating raw oysters; how much the menu at the Brown Hotel in Louisville has changed very little over the decades; how much the people in Oregon and Washington don't just love salmon but loooooove salmon.

It's little regional quirks and differences that you learn about that are truly fascinating considering it's happened within a few generations of my birth and gave me the opportunity to speak with my grandmother about Depression-era times and the kind of eating that took place in her younger years living in Frederick and later New Jersey. Though not food-related, just listening to hear talk about how a drive from her house to Manhattan (which now takes about 30-45 minutes depending on traffic) took almost 3 hours because only two two-lane roads went from northern Jersey to the city. Crazy stuff, and fun to talk about with her. Always glad when a good book allows you to connect with a family member, and that is why this book gets a big thumbs up from me.

Word Welder Extraordinaire

Well that didn't take long. Shortly before I conquered Temple Run, I decided to go ahead and find another game to play, and somewhere along the way either the wife or I downloaded W.E.L.D.E.R. to the iPhone.

This app is one of those word search / creator games where you put letters together and form words. Deep stuff, believe me. It blends aspects of Scrabble, Tetris and others. The game throws some fun little tricks to make things difficult, like letter tiles that remain frozen or ones that score no points or others that can score triple the points. It varies things up enough to keep things interesting and if you are connected to WiFi it has a fancy dictionary that turns on if you happen to create a word by accident that you didn't know existed.

I thought this game started off well, but it soon got way too easy. For one thing, there are a ton of words that the game gets away with that are not even in the English language. I'm not kidding. When tiles fell and created a couple Latin and Japanese words and let those slide, I was stunned. Of course, I knew the game was flawed once I discovered its religious bent. What do you say, Campbell, that the game favors the lord?

Oh yes, yes it does. It will accept words that are not even in Miriam Webster's Dictionary, but try getting the word "satan" through and surprisingly it doesn't allow it. It also won't accept curse words, which is obviously bullshit. It also wouldn't originally allow words like vagina but an update let them through the master filter later on. It's just one of those things that you begin to notice and then try and purposefully see what is and isn't allowed. At that point I was getting bored with the game and just wanted to finish it as quickly as possible.

It took a few weeks, but eventually I was successful. I got through all 15 levels, scored my 82,000 points and the game gave me the credits and congratulations screen. I was done, having mastered another game and left once more searching for something to have me pass the time on the train.

Game On: Week of May 25

My recent column reviewing Max Payne 3. Only one game this week as I had a lot to say about it, because it's awesome. Thanks to the Honolulu Star Advertiser for publishing.

Friday Funnies

One of the pleasant spring surprises for the wife and I has been the HBO show Veep. Holy shit is it funny. That it stars Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as a foul-mouthed vice president is precious, and that it costars Buster from Arrested Development and a grown-up Anna Chlumsky (which was bizarre to see and also made me feel quite old, thank you "My Girl") is also hilarious. The bit characters like Josh the moron from POTUS' office and a one-liner machine in the role of Selina's secretary, we just love this show. It's full of f-bombs and wildly inappropriate jokes all jammed into a solid 28 minutes every Sunday. It's a must-see.

Temple King

After conquering Hearts, Spades, Euchere and many other games on my iPhone, I enlisted some friends to help suggest some mobile games for my phone to pass the time when on the train and just killing time. For someone who reviews video games for a living it was strange to ask others for suggestions here, but it's just not an area I deal with all that often so luckily I have slacker friends who had suggestions.

My buddy Dboy's suggestion was the popular game called Temple Run. It's a pretty simple game of running, jumping, sliding and getting rich. You collect coins in a game where the speed constantly increases and the crevasses get wider and the difficulty ramps up quickly. Quick thinking, that is what is needed. Kinda like Indiana Jones, but without a young Alfred Molina holding me back.

Well I got it, baby. Only took me a couple months, but I've become the Temple King. It's a self-proclaimed title, mind you. But it's true. I've unlocked all the characters and won all 36 achievements the game offers (and some of them are damn hard). Anyway, it's another step along the way and another notch in the totem pole of my greatness in video games. Or as the wife calls it, "the title no one cares about but you."

Game On: Week of May 18

My recent column reviewing Starhawk and Sniper Elite V2. Thanks to the Fairfield, CA Daily Republic for publishing.

   

Friday Funnies

Last night brought 90 minutes of pure joy to my week. I got not one, but three episodes of my favorite obscure comedy that only I and maybe 11 other people watch and truly appreciate for all its glory, Community. The 8-bit episode alone was perhaps the most rewarding and fulfilling mashup of all the things I love tied up in an 18-minute package of goodness. But to say goodbye to Community until the Fall, or whenever the hell the morons at NBC decide to bring it back, I have to recall one of the best scenes of the entire season. It naturally included Jeff and his affect on Dean Pelton.

Idiot of the Day

A short but brief Idiot of the Day mention. I understand ... you’re young, you’re in love ... or, perhaps you are older and yet young in love ... I don’t care. Do what you want in the privacy of your home. Don’t come onto the train a 8 in the morning and proceed to re-enact the most famous PDA scene of all time three feet from me. And also stop forcing your lady friend to do things in public she’s not really up for, like massive groping and makeout sessions. When she’s pulling away, you smashing your face into hers is doing none of us any favors. You’re not that sly, and you’re not that cool. No one is. You’re just an idiot. 

Game On: Week of May 11

My recent column reviewing The Walking Dead: Episode 1 - The Day After and Mortal Kombat. Thanks to The Republic for publishing.

Friday Funnies

Don't ask how I came across this stunning clip of Arnold Schwazenhoweverthehellyouspellhisname. The key portion of this fantastically hilarious bad acting comes late in the clip when Arnold decides to literally shake this woman to death. This isn't comedy in the Judd Apatow sense of the word. More in the "holy shit someone thought this guy had acting chops" kinda way. This poor woman's neck. I just hope they nailed this on the first take (I mean, he did have his eyes closed the whole time, so who knows if he banged into something and had to go again).

My Magic 8 Ball

I know this is going to sound weird, but I only used this Magic 8 Ball once and it broke shortly thereafter. But before I discard it, I have to thank it for helping me out. It was a crappy little 8 Ball that a video game company sent me a bunch of years ago, and I don't consider myself much of a superstitious man. But when you are feeling down, you'll damn near try anything.

During one of the low points at my former job, I had just comeback from an interview where I could tell they just weren't into me. It's fine, you can't get every job you apply for, but I was feeling a little down and it was well past that point where work was getting bad and people were being particularly crummy toward me on a regular basis where they had once been my closest colleagues and friends.

So I picked up the 8 Ball on a whim and asked two simple questions: 1) Would I be out of this job in less than a month? Answer: "Most certainly." And 2) Will it be a job I actually want? Answer: "The stars say yes." 

And in less than three weeks the 8 Ball I got word of the Washingtonian job, applied, interviewed and got it. So a toast to you, Magic 8 Ball. You only worked once before breaking, but it only took once for you to fulfill your purpose. 

Game On: Week of May 4

My recent column reviewing Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings and Kinect Star Wars.

  

My December to Remember

Last December was something of a bell wether month for me. It was when I made two pretty major life decisions. 1) I was going to get a new job; and 2) I was going to go back to school. 


And the best thing is, I accomplished them both in less than three months, and I got everything I wanted out of both. Yeah, I'm good that way.


These two major events are definitely intertwined because one would have probably never happened without the other. I was loving my previous job at the nonprofit until I got 100% blindsided by some unbelievable acts of bullshit. It instantly changed my entire perception of my job and some of the people I worked with whom I thought I could trust and rely on. When the shock wore off and the anger/hurt/whatever began to subside, I knew I had to get out there. Luckily, it was in this moment of introspection that I had a thought. 


"I'm 35, and in 10 years when I'm 45 do I still expect to be a print designer, full well knowing that print is not exactly a booming industry? If not, do I want to be 45 and trying to find a new career without having to wash cars or fashion up a latte at some hipster coffeehouse? Why not make figure this out now?"


It was during this reflection period that Kelly and I talked about maybe applying to this graduate program at AU for digital media skills. We'd both had conversations in the past year that were almost 100% relating to the question I posed to myself above (which is important because there is no way the former employer gets credit for my life change besides shining a bright spotlight on my need to get out of there). We had talked before about the Corcoran or some other local program that we might be able to do together just because it's always better to got through something with someone you know than going it alone (and we'd push each other to do well instead of just hanging around and simply seeing it through).


We both applied to the program and got in, and I am really excited about what it could mean. It's all about taking the skills I already know from print design and learning to translate it to the internet and other multimedia products. iPad apps, rich media presentations, all that jazz. I'm not going to retire some rich badass who created the next Angry Birds because of this program, but then again ask me in a year when it's over and I may have a different opinion on that.


But school was only one part of the problem, and it was secondary to the employment factor. I applied to jobs I had no training for and ones I would have excelled in easily but would not have necessarily been challenged in. I went on a couple interviews and I liked some and other didn't like me and that's how it goes. I then heard about the opening at the Washingtonian, but not for the print side … but the website.


Sweet! Not only am I spending a year learning digital media skills, but I can parlay that into an actual day-to-day job while I learn? After a few weeks of interviews and such, I got the call on a Friday during March Madness (naturally, it's only the greatest time of the year for a UK fan, so why not add onto the goodness?) and I got the job.


So that moment in December led to a convergence of both a new career and new course of direction in my ever-growing skillet. I couldn't be happier and it's nice to know my biggest worries now are learning how the internet works (OK, so that's kinda worrisome), and avoiding gaining the infamous 15 pounds that all new Washingtonian employees gain because of all the free food constantly showing up (#firstworldproblem). 

It's a new day, people. But I'll always remember that December (but not in that gawd-awful song kind of way).

Friday Funnies

Had to scour the known universe for this damn clip, and it's not even the best quality over there at BusinessTube (I'm sure I have a virus on my machine now). Anyhow, Kelly and his lady friend are soaking it in across the country in San Diego, so of course we have to celebrate his vacation with Ron Burgandy.

Friday Funnies

I'll have two Friday Funnies this week because I already had one planned when my mother declared that she might give me up for adoption if I didn't post this one as well. Because, you know, it is the West Wing and she's only watched the entire box set of the series (kept in a Break Only In Case of Emergency vault) no fewer than 16 times.