Being cranky about a Dan Brown book not being high literature is like yelling at a cupcake for not being a salad; it’s really missing the point. You don’t want the cupcake? Don’t eat the cupcake. Apparently lots of people like cupcakes. They don’t care that you want them to eat salad. You eat salad, if it’s so important to you.

John Scalzi, via this post on Whatever

Really it is just an all around great metaphor and works well to make its point (and, in my opinion, serves as a highlight of what is great about Mr. Scalzi’s blog).

So here’s the truth (and I’m a bit ashamed to admit it now): I used to be all sorts of snobby about Dan Brown books.  The Da Vinci Code came out to much acclaim and fanfare when I was a sophomore in college.  Because so many people were hooting and hollering about how amazing and fascinating and great it was, I decided to give it a go.  Perhaps needless to say at this point, I was not amused.  In fact, I pretty much hated it.  I thought that it was absurd, poorly written, and all around undeserving of any of the praise it was receiving.  Essentially, in my eyes, it was garbage.  And of course, I should know, because I was an English Major full of the know about what was “Great” literature and what was god awful shit.

Except I was wrong. And I am here now admitting it.

I probably will never love Dan Brown or his writing, it really just does not appeal to me.  With that said I will also probably never read another Dan Brown book.  I may, personally, wish that people would consider trying some other material besides Mr. Brown’s, but, ultimately, if The Da Vinci Code and other novels that Dan Brown wrote are your thing, if they’re your “cupcake,” then I must honestly and sincerely say “I hope you enjoy them.”

Just like with wine, ultimately the enjoyment of a book, comes down to a subjective opinion.  Sure there are things that seem to be more universally effective of accepted as “good,” but ultimately if you enjoy those Harlequin novels and think that Nabokov is crap, that is your opinion to keep.

And for what it is worth, I love a lot of books that wouldn’t meet a lot of the standards of “literature.”  Stephen King is arguably my all-time favorite author, and he’s had many slings and arrows thrown at him regarding the quality of his writing.  I also love the likes of Mr. Scalzi’s works, and while I think they are great and enjoyable, I am sure some literary scholars could happily and easily tear apart their “quality.”

Really, honestly, when we get down to it, we should just be happy that people are reading at all.  Sure, encourage people to try something new.  Recommend something challenging that’ll make them think about some different things.  But at the end of the day, let’s just let people eat whatever cupcakes the want.  We’d all be a lot happier this way.

Yes, it is true, that certain chemicals do create certain flavors or fragrances, however, that is the end of the objectivity matter.  Whether the presence of those flavors or fragrances are deemed good or bad will ultimately come down to that subjective appraisal.  Furthermore, as a couple of the examples in the article point out, even our subjective analysis and review is often lacking in a lot of consistency, so much so that we might respond differently to the exact same thing only moments apart.

This isn’t to say that there are not any wines that, as a whole, enjoy broad praise for quality.  Certainly there are plenty.  What it does say however, is that our insistent reliance on “experts” when it comes to things like wine (or whatever else really) is, at best, unnecessary, and in the extreme, really just kind of absurd.  If you like a bottle of five-buck-chuck, even though it is universally reviled by the elite of wine world, guess what?  Good for you, you have a wine that you enjoy and there is nothing wrong with that.

All too often, with some many things in life, we undermine our own pleasure and enjoyment, with the intent to try to confirm and adhere to some sense of conformity with an authority that deems what is good or not.  But when we see, that those authorities are not really nearly as reliable as they may claim, then we’re given a good opportunity to reevaluate and say, “hey, doesn’t it just make more sense to enjoy what we do enjoy, and not give a flying fuck if some critic or review says we should or shouldn’t?”  The answer is “yes, we should just enjoy whatever we happen to.”  Life is a lot better that way.

When I read I find myself thinking a lot about the things going on in the book (and I am going to assume this is the case for most people, because if not, well I don’t really know, hope you’re having fun I guess). I believe I do this equally between fiction and non-fiction.  Additional, I often am reading more than one book at once.    I’ll often have a book that I leave at work to read during lunch and another at home to read at night or during other free time (sometimes I’ll also have a third, like right now where I have two at work; one for while I am eating lunch, one after I am done eating lunch but still on lunch break). When I am reading multiple books I often find how the ideas in one enhance or contrast the ideas in other in fascinating and exciting ways.  This is the essence I think of what “Book Pairing” would be.

The challenge then, would be to propose good book pairings.  I feel that, as a rule, the books cannot be about the same thing (like say, two Jane Austen novels, or two books about the history of Mexico) because essentially that is like trying to pair baked potatoes with mashed potatoes, regardless of how good the potatoes are in both cases, they’re still both potatoes.  No, they have to, at least at face value, be about different things.  Even better, would be if one were fiction and the other a non-fiction.  I am going to work on some proposals of pairings and maybe I’ll come back and post some in the future.  In the meantime, I’d love to hear some other folks proposals for good book pairings.

Enjoy!

Okay, so a disgusting question, yes, but one that I got to thinking about the other day.  I have encountered a wide range of rotting smells over the years, primarily due to keeping compost (it becomes kind of inevitable with that), but also, on occasion  for leaving something in the fridge past its prime (or worse yet, forgetting to put something in the fridge in the first place), or running into something dead out in the world.  All around, the smell of rot tends to be unpleasant, to say the least, if not outright sickening.  But what rotting thing smells the worst?

I do not know if there is some kind of official measurement of smell or the horribleness of rot-stench so I am just going go out on a limb and say that the worst  kind of rotting smell is “flesh.” Whether it be meat or a dead animal; that is the truly worst of the worst when it comes to disgusting.  Honestly, I am pretty tolerant of strong smells most of the time, and really, as best as I can recall, the only time I’ve honestly ever wretched at a smell was when, working at a plant nursery a few years back, I came upon a wonderfully decaying dead rat.  It was rough.  I don’t know what it is about rotting animal matter, but it has a tendency to be real bad.

Okay, so what about non-animal things?  While none of it smells great I tend to think that there are three things in particular that are real bad compared to all others.  Onions, potatoes, and peppers.  I don’t really know what it is about these three veggies (fruit, if you want to be all technical in the case of the peppers), but when they go bad, they go real bad. They also seem to have the tendency to go bad real fast and suddenly.  Like, they are fine and good one day, and then the next they are just a pile of rank death and disgust.  Furthermore, at least in the case of potatoes and onions, these are food things I often have in high abundance, raising the risk of them suddenly turning on me (also increasing their quantity in the compost). What interests me about them however, is that each one has a unique and different rotting smell.  Onions still smell, essentially, like onions, just stronger and worse and evil.  Potatoes get this slick sewage rot smell to them.  Almost oily.  And peppers, they just have this cloying and clinging sickly sweet rot, that permeates through everything.  Other veggies and fruits are not great, but a carrot or a lemon never seem to be quite as foul as an onion or pepper past its prime.

While we’re on the subject, perhaps it is worth considering the “why” of rotting things smelling so bad. I suspect (though don’t have the direct evidence to back this up) that the primary reason things smell so bad to us when they rot is as a biological defense mechanism to prevent us from eating said rotting things.  The process of decomposition involves an astounding amount of microorganism and while many are likely harmless to us, some are apt to have a potential to cause us to get quite sick (if not kill us, and making us into rotting things. Just sayin’).  Thus it is, from a survival standpoint, pertinent to be made to want to avoid rotting things. Additionally, as a last line of defense, rotting things taste disgusting (though this is actually partially due to smell too, as fragrance plays a huge role in how we interpret tastes).   So, when you gag at some disgusting rot smell you can (after you are done gagging and dry heaving) thank evolution from keeping you from wanting to put that dead possum in your mouth (enjoy putting all the not-dead possums in your mouth that you want to.  I’m sure said possums will be really cooperative with you about it).

I feel like it is worth noting that dogs, universally, seem to have lost this revulsion to rotting things.  Instead, somewhere along the way, their minds got rewired to interpret rottingness as the greatest most fascinating and alluring smells ever encountered.  So great are they that the dogs will happily roll in said rotting stuff, eat it, and also offer it as gifts of absolute love to their friend-beasts (aka you and me).  Hey dogs, evolution pulled a fast one on you, that rotting skunk is not amazing, it is real real gross, leave it alone.

Oh, if you are like me, and don’t get particularly easily grossed out at things (besides dead rats, crawling with maggots, and smelling of death in the worst imaginable way possible), you might want to watch “After Life: The Science of Decay.”  It is a truly fascinating look at the whole process of rotting and decay that will eventual reduce all of us to nothing but our most base elements (Hooray!)

That is all.  Oh! And just in time for lunch. MMM-MM!

As I attempted to catch the moth the fluttering insect suddenly found itself caught in a messy spindly cobweb up high on one of our bookcases.  I counted this as a blessing, because now the moth was relatively immobilized and would be easier to remove.  I was just about to reach up and capture it, when I was beat to the act by the single largest spider I have ever seen in my house. I want to insist that this is saying something.  Besides the occasional black widow I am quite opposed to killing spiders in the house because they are beneficial predators who contribute to keeping other pest bugs away.  I have grown accustomed to seeing large male Southern House Spiders slowly lurking about, but this one made even them look minute.  This large, smooth, and black-brown spider scuttled out, grabbed the moth (quite large itself) and quickly went to work encasing it webbing.  Then, with the job done, it took its meal, and disappeared back behind the books from which it had emerged. I looked at the titles, trying to determine if they were anything that I might want to read soon.  They were not, so I decided to let the thing say where it was.  I did decide that it deserved the name “Shelob” however, being large enough to make an audible noise while it moved (at best guess, including its legs, I’d put this at about three inches long).

With a bit of research I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the female version of those Southern House Spiders (aka Crevice Weaver Spider) I’ve seen; a member of the species Kukulcania hibernalis.  These spiders exhibit very extreme sexual dimorphism, so much such that the males and females are often mistaken for two separate species. The males are often mistaken as Brown Recluse spiders, whereas the females have a look similar to that of a tunnelweb spider or a small smooth tarantula. While large and kind of disturbing looking Southern House Spiders are harmless to humans, and, in fact, serve as very effective pest controls.  If you don’t like these in your house, but, like me, are opposed to killing them, it is best not to just put them directly outdoors, as they are not accustomed to the colder weather.  Instead I recommend dropping them down some duct working, or putting them in the crawls space or a shed, where they can continue to serve as predators of more annoying bugs.

I wish I could have gotten a good picture of her, but ol’ Shelob liked her privacy and disappeared before I had a chance to snap a shot.  There are some good photos of them on What’s that Bug however.  Here is a photograph I’ve managed to snap of a big male one (possible Shelobs husband?) a while back:

They might look creepy slowly lurking about the house, however, the male Southern House Spider (Kukulcania hibernalis) is harmless, mostly blind, in with jaws too tiny to even bite a human. They look quite different from their female counterparts due to extreme sexual dimorphism.

FYI, the irony of my reading “Wicked Bugs” when Shelob emerged has not be lost on me.

Generally speaking I don’t care for the fragrance of a lot of flowers (especially paper-whites, those things make me nauseous).  I find a lot of them simply too fragrant and kind of cloying.  However, I have long had a fondness for the smell of roses.  In fact, I might be so bold to say that I think the scent of roses is about one of the most appealing smells that can be encountered.

So imagine my dismay when, not too long ago, I was informed that some are scentless.  I was even further shocked to learn that this is not a flaw in design, but in fact a product of intention.  I literally and verbally said “What the fuck?”

Sure, roses can offer more than just their delightful smell.  They can be really beautiful plants and add a lot to landscaping.  And probably there are some folks who don’t like the smell of roses (fyi, they’re wrong, roses smell great, because . . .  science or something).  But, it just seems weird to me to breed varieties that don’t have even some slight degree of a scent.

For our part Eliza and I actively choose to only grow scented roses.  Eliza has grown a lot and a wide variety of roses over they years, and they represent one of the few ornamental species we’re actively incorporating into our yard.  Why, well a big part of it is because we both want to enjoy their wonderful fragrances.

I’m gonna say it again, scentless roses are stupid.

The concept is pretty straight forward and simple.  Patrons to the libraries can “check-out” seeds.  Of course, as the purpose of seeds is to plant them, the patron is not directly returning those specific seeds, but some models encourage the patrons who use the system to in tern save their own seeds and donate them for future loaning.

I think there is a lot to be said about this.  Plants, in general produce a lot of seeds per an individual of a species.  With proper care in regards to pollination, making sure not to collect from hybrids, and correct seed processing, a single plant can provide plenty of seeds for a large number of other people to plant in turn. If more people plant the seeds, and then in turn practice seed saving themselves, the quantity of viable seeds increases significantly.  Seeds are often not cheap, and providing free access to a variety of plant seeds thus can encourage more people to start growing things.  Additionally, I suspect that seed libraries could have a long term net benefit to preserving more heirloom varieties of plants, and possibly encouraging the development of new heirloom varieties.

This is something that I would love to see eventually at my library.  I have talked to some people with similar interest and hope that maybe in a few years this might be something we can try out.  There is a lot of rural farmland throughout Greenville county which could foster an interest.  Also, there is a definite growing movement of urban gardening and community gardens in the more developed areas of the county.  I think, that with the right approach, something like a seed library could do really well here.

So, we’ll see.  In the meantime, I need to work more on saving seeds well.

Some links:

http://www.seedlibrary.org/

http://newdream.s3.amazonaws.com/19/20/3/3063/webinar_slides_seed_library.pdf

All that being said, since living in South Carolina, and even more so since regularly gardening, I tend to look forward to a good rain. About the only time that I feel a little annoyed with the wet weather is when I have yard work I want to accomplish and the rain prevents me from doing so (this is especially irritating on the weekends which are my primary source of free time throughout the week).

With a lot of wet weather this weekend, and needing to get some things done, Eliza and I made the decision of spending a few hours working in the rain on Saturday.

Overall I didn’t mind this wet work all that much, but Eliza keenly pointed out that that was primarily because I was doing physical labor which made it so I didn’t notice the cold of being wet that much (Eliza on the other hand was doing a lot less physically active tasks and thus ended up feeling much more of the chill.  Having worked in the heavy rain many times before, when I used to work at the greenhouse/plant nursery in VT, I am always amazed at just how quickly a steady rain can soak everything you are wearing.  It doesn’t even need to be raining all that hard for this to happen.  Literally, with ten to fifteen minutes being outside in precipitation you’ll be soaked.

The challenge with working in the rain is doing the right task.  Some things are not advisable in wet weather because they are either made more dangerous (pretty much anything that can become increasingly slippery or any electrical work) or they can cause averse effects to the project as a whole (digging earth can be an example of this).  For my part I finished moving the remains of a mulch pile we had, using the chipped wood to fill in the swale paths we had dug earlier in the week. In the end I finished off the pile and got a good chunk of the paths filled in, making a corner of our front yard look more like what our desired end result will be.

While the experience of doing yard work in the rain wasn’t the worst from my perspective I am not planning on doing it again anytime too soon, just because getting so wet isn’t really all that enjoyable.  But, the next week or so looks to have the potential to remain pretty wet and we’re supposed to get another big load of mulch sometime this week.  So it might be unavoidable.  Oh well.

I hope folks have a good week.  Stay dry (if you can).

Mind you, this isn’t a bad thing, I’d rather have things to keep me busy and entertained than the alternative (though some general relaxation days are nice too).

This past weekend, proved t be just another busy weekend in a long line of such busy weekends.

On Saturday was the first annual Community Tap Beer Festival.  This was a great bit of fun.  I have, over the past several years, had the opportunity to enjoy a number of beer festivals throughout the region.  But this past Saturday’s event was the first beer festival I got to attend in the city of my residence.  Furthermore, it was the first beer festival that was proximate enough to my house, that it only took ten minutes to walk there (thus eliminating any need for driven transportation). Besides the regional benefits, is was an all around good beer festival in general.  I particularly liked that The Community Tap maintained an attendance cap (of 400 people) on the event, which made it so that things didn’t feel over crowded and also that you didn’t have to wait but a moment at each breweries booth to get a sample.  I am already looking forward to next year’s event.

Yesterday (that day being Sunday) was spent, in the entirety, out in the woods foraging for morels.  The group of us (seven in total) had some great success finding a large collection of blond and tulip morels throughout a few spots.  In addition we foraged a few other wild finds like wild onions and smilax shoots.  These efforts will pay out in dividend tonight, when a local chef from The Trappe Door (who was one of the members of our foraging expedition yesterday)  will prepare us a meal with our findings (as well as some of our eggs from our chickens).  I’ll probably write another post about that tomorrow.

So, good and productive weekend time (though I kind of wish I could have gotten some more garden work done).  Now I am ready for a bit of a break, and as far as I can currently tell, on this Monday morning, next weekend will probably be a free one.

That is all.  Hope folks have a good week.

So, in reading this blog post, and as you can already guess from this post’s title, I am going to suggest that we eat more bugs.  I’m sure a bunch of you have gagged just at the thought of it, but, look, it really is logical.  As the linked post points out 1) they’re really nutritious, 2) widely available, and 3) you’re already doing it anyways (mmm-mmm, that chocolate you had after lunch just got way more tasty didn’t it?).

What I am really curious about, is why as a nation we are, for the most part, so opposed to the idea of eating things like insects.  A lot of people already eat shrimp and lobster, which, while not insects themselves, are very close cousins (and if you dig in the ground you’ll likely find some pillbugs, which are ground living crustaceans).  Likewise with clams and oysters, which are not too distantly related to your common garden slugs and snails.  And while I know the idea of eating bugs might seem gross to many people, I am challenged to find a real reason why (I think it is an illogical culturally construed gut-reaction.  This isn’t to say it isn’t a real reaction, but more so, to suggest that it is not a rule that we need to adhere to).

So, maybe think about it some more, and try eating some tasty and nutritious bugs.  Here is a good long list of edible insects.  I can’t speak for many of them, but I have ate grasshoppers, crickets, and ants and lived to tell the tale (and actually found the crickets quite enjoyable).