The Omnivore's Hundred

From Laura's blog.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (I italicised - couldn't figure out strike-through on blogger!)
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (Clay?)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (Well, an SMH hatted restaurant.)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Aldridge

Continuing on from yesterday's post about changing my name...

My supervisor was also commenting that "Aldridge" sounded very American upper class - "The Aldridges of Boston" or something like that. He thought it might have been a Mayflower name, but after a quick Google search, I can't find any evidence of that.

However, Aldridge is a town in England, which Matt and I visited while we were over there. We were hoping to get a photo of the newest Aldridge in front of a nice "Welcome to Aldridge" sign, but we couldn't find one. We asked at a shop, and apparently touched on a sore point - the shop keeper was just reading over the minutes of a council meeting about trying to get such a sign!



Interestingly, Aldridge is in Walsall, which is where my grandfather was from. So, in becoming an Aldridge by marriage, I've really just returned to my roots!



Update: I think my supervisor was confusing "Aldridge" with "Alden" - John Alden was a character in a poem called The Courtship of Miles Standish. He mentioned this story, and the possibility that there was a John Aldridge involved, but sadly it was John Alden.

Hilarious!

I wonder if I can work an excuse like this into my review next week?

The last time I studied Malebranche’s Reserche de la Verite was back in the mid-sixties. I was mistakenly given credit for French competence as my dissertation topic was Duhem, but I never managed to find the building where the course on non-fiction French was held. The only English translation of Malebranche back then was the seventeenth century one. At UT Austin it was kept in the rare book room at the top (26th) of the library. While dutifully studying it I heard a drum beat and looking out the window I saw a procession far below carrying a coffin. I went down to find out what was going on. It turned out to be an anti-war demonstration, which I joined and never went back. Well, not quite. In August 1966 I planned to return, but a friend (who, being a native Texan, took assassinations and mass murders in stride as an everyday thing in those days) casually told me I probably should delay my visit, as about 50 people had been shot and a score had been killed. This was the famous Texas Tower Sniper, and the library was closed off after he was killed above the 26th floor. That’s my excuse for not grasping Malebranche in graduate school.

as well as I should have.

Long time, no post

Before I can post a real post, I figure I should at least make a brief comment about the fact that I've been gone so long. Wedding, honeymoon, conferences, settling into married life... It's been an insanely crazy couple of months.

Strangely enough, I post more when I'm working harder on my PhD, so perhaps now that I'm starting to get back into the swing of things, I'll post here more regularly...

I'm loving Garage Hymnal

In other news, I'm getting married in 6 days!!

The Bangles rock!

And that's all I have to say about that.

Except...

I'm getting married in 10 days!!!

This is an awesome poem!

Why Are Fire Engines Red?

They have four wheels and eight men;
four plus eight is twelve;
twelve inches make a ruler;
a ruler is Queen Elizabeth;
Queen Elizabeth sails the seven seas;
the seven seas have fish;
the fish have fins;
the Finns hate the Russians;
the Russians are red;
fire engines are always rushin';
so they're red.

H/t Robert Velarde at A Reasonable Imagination.

In other news, I'm getting married in 24 days!!

The editors of the NIV are not men!

Want to know what's wrong with America? Check out this video...

Totally random video

Complementarity without hierarchy

A very interesting blog.

5 weeks to go!

Or 35 days.

Either way, it's getting scary. It's both a very long and a very short period of time!

Evil?

This is the man that I'm going to marry:


The "evil balaclava" is from the hilarious War on Terror board game given to us by my lovely sister-in-law-to-be, Lynley.

Submission

In preparation for our impending marriage (44 days to go!), Matt and I have talked quite a lot about what we think headship and submission mean in a Christian marriage. Believe it or not, for those who think I'm a raving feminist, we will be having a reading from Ephesians at the wedding, and a sermon that will address this topic.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail now about what we think about submission and headship - I'll need more time for that than I currently have - but I'd like to share one thought that we received from Tim MacBride (preacher and musician extraordinaire, and associate pastor at my church). He said that if there are gender roles in marriage (he's not entirely convinced of the headship/submission distinction) it's not about who takes leadership or responsibility, or who gets to make the decisions. It's about who gets to be the bigger servant.

I think this is kind of reflected in the most common argument that Matt and I have. We're generally pretty good with arguments - we don't have too many. We've occasionally conflicted over big issues, but have always managed to sort things out. The issues we disagree over most, and generally refuse to compromise, are ones that don't matter at all. But this exchange, in the comments on this post and quoted below, is our most common argument:

chindogu said... My Fiancee is cooler!

lara said... Nuh uh! Mine is so much cooler!

chindogu said... I think not. Yours is cool, but mine is definatly cooler!

lara said... Nuh uh! Mine is definitely the cooler fiance!

chindogu said... I demand that you submit to my headship! My Fiancee is cooler!

lara said... OK!

It's the only time Matt would ever demand that I submit, and the only time that I would submit to such a demand!

And yes, I know, it's sickeningly sweet. We're kind of like that at the moment...

Don't sneeze on ducks!

I'm preparing for my classes today, doing a reading about flu epidemics. The author is talking about how viruses can mutate and pass between species, and makes this classic comment:

Many scientists now recommend that people not sneeze on ducks unless they are intent on making a new strain of flu.

Achoo!

45 days to go!

Hurrah!

I could write about all the things that we've still got to do, but that would waste the time I should be spending on actually doing the things! So, I'll just say this:

I can't wait to be married to the most wonderful man I've ever known! I love my fiance!!

Freezing!

When I got to uni this morning I noticed two things:

1. It's quieter than usual in the FASS

2. It's a lot colder than usual in the FASS.

It took me about 5 minutes before I put 1 and 2 together and got 3:

3. The air conditioning is not on.

I'm freezing!

On Speed

A recent release from New York University Press. I bought it today for one reason, and one reason alone - I got a mention in the acknowledgments!!

"The research assistance of [Lara] was most helpful in completing the work."

It's not much, but it's still exciting!

And ok, there was another reason I bought the book. The research I did (little though it was) was actually very interesting - looking at studies on the use of amphetamines in the military. And while I was fixing up the references, the bits I got to skim looked interesting too. I'm not sure I'll actually get a chance to read it in the near future, but that's never stopped me buying a book before!

2 months to go!

Very exciting indeed!

I need help!

This is a bizarre website!

Why???

I tutor an online subject on Science and Religion, and I always seem to get the most hyperactive groups. Compare the number of messages posted in each group so far. Mine are groups 4 and 5, in purple below:

Tute 1 140 Messages

Tute 2 64 Messages

Tute 3 99 Messages

Tute 4 348 Messages

Tute 5 239 Messages

Tute 6 94 Messages

Tute 7 104 Messages

Tute 8 172 Messages

This is just ridiculous! Tutors should get paid by the message instead of a flat rate per week!