these days of leiderhosen

There, apparently, is a huge debate going on the use of horsemeat in the human food chain. I’ve eaten horse meat and it’s rather tasty. I always loved Jeffrey Steingartens’ response a few years ago to some angry flack he received from Vogue readers when he mentioned the use of horse fat in cooking France. I’m going to quote it directly as I found it an astonishing response.: From Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything. ‘When this article appeared, an avid horsewoman organized a campaign against Vogue for verbal cruelty to horses. Vogue mollified her by publishing, unedited, a letter abusing the author. I replied “ The United States is the largest horse-meat exporter in the world (as many as 400,000 animals a year are sent to slaughter) because it has the largest recreational horse population. These animals become ‘surplus’ when horse lovers unnecessarily breed their pets, owners sell their racehorse after only a few years, and recreational riders trade up. Slaughter and expor...

...as I wave my little Whedon geek flag.

...and enslave me forever. There is nothing nicer. A short bounce from the luminous and delicious Heather Ordover's wonderful podcast CraftLit I found a selection of Glen Hallstom's Librivox recordings on Librivox.org . His Dickens' Christmas Carol (v. 2.) is not to be missed. It is amazing and one of the best reading I've heard yet. A deep, expressive British voice. And Librivox.org ?" Free recorded public domain books. Free. Is the Internet a lovely place? They even have the Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova , which I did not know they had translated yet! Amazing.

Today, both triumphant and fed up, I finished up 60% of my work for the month. I believe I have stuffed as many numbers in to boxes that I can. Later on this evening I found that last month's check was short 25% and this month 35%. This is being investigated. On to discuss nicer things: I love my new office mate Gayle. She's all mine for another 2 weeks until I am shipped out to the Boondocks of University Land. WNYC's Radiolab has been in hot rotation on the ipod. If you haven't heard it, it is fabulous. The show "Ooops!" might be my favorite so far. It's Friday, damn it. Soba noodles and spicy tuna rolls for dinner. And now for your viewing pleasure: Footage from a High Speed Moving Train. I think it's awesome.

I've hooted previously about Patti Smith's biography Just Kids . She won the non-fiction National Book Award and read aloud at the Award ceremony. You can find some of the audio here : Patti loses her change in an Automat and faces off with Allen Ginsberg, my favorite part of the book.