talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

westward

Go west, young woman, to the land of...alien jerky, stuffed olives, and honey. Who knew?

I'm heading back toward the coast on Saturday. The fall semester of the 3L year begins in a few weeks, and with any luck my posting patterns will return to normal.

Hope your July's been a good one.

the fourth of july

The Times has republished the text of the Declaration of Independence this Fourth of July, accompanied by an audio segment featuring (then Senator) John F. Kennedy reading the text in 1957--see the right-hand sidebar for the audio link, or use this.

It's a stirring document when read aloud. Happy Independence Day.

bounty from the north

Terrence returned from the WWDC today bearing a little bit of the San Francisco Farmers' Market bounty: an entire flat of Lucero strawberries, ripe through and through and so lovely and fragrant; a large bag of Jeff Young's unmatched lettuces (picked at Jeff's farm in Watsonville just yesterday); tiny yellow and red tomatoes; and two giant loaves of Acme's pain au levain.

We've already tucked into the lettuces and shared a few pints of strawberries with one of our berry-loving neighbors, and I'm planning our uses for the pain au levain tomorrow (poached eggs on levain for breakfast; BLTs for lunch; garlic levain with chicken and tomatoes for dinner...) and beyond. While this is not to say that we're devoid of good produce here in the Los Angeles area, we've yet to find local suppliers that match Jeff's lettuces, Lucero's strawberries, and Acme's bread. They're just magnificent--a few of the things about the Bay Area I do miss.

[click on the photos to enlarge]

from the "ain't that the truth" department

Actually, it's from Curt Rosengren's blog, The Occupational Adventure, specifically his "musings on life" category. Something to think about when one's work schedule starts invading the rest of one's life. (Original post, to which Curt links, is here.)

fahrenheit 9/11 op-ed

Terrence and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 last week on its opening day and thought it was a provocative film. We both (I think I can speak for Terrence on this point) thought it was well worth our time. I've been trying to put together a post on it, but when I read Paul Krugman's op-ed piece in yesterday's Times I thought he said a lot of things I was thinking. Here's his piece.

marlon brando, r.i.p.

Ah, he's gone. I recently watched broadcasts of Apocalypse Now Redux and the original Godfather and was really taken by his physical presence. I also laughed out loud at his turn in The Freshman and his ability to not take himself so seriously. And I cringed at the sight of him in white makeup and muu muu in the remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau I swear that even Val Kilmer is laughing during some of the scenes; perhaps he just couldn't contain himself? As strange as it was, I'm oddly tempted to watch this one again--I seem to remember a disturbing character, a sort of "Mini-Me" version of Brando's Dr. Moreau character, long before the Austin Powers/Dr. Evil/Mini-Me characters hit the big screen.

Unfortunately or not, I also think of Brando when I walk past the assortment of potatoes in Whole Foods' produce department. (Did you know that if you run a Google search on prostate AND "Idaho potato" two of the top five responses relate to Brando? Don't worry if this seems bizarre--it's just an indicator that you haven't seen Last Tango in Paris.)

I wonder if anyone would comment if, the next time I went to Trader Joe's for my periodic stocking-up of Plugra (six pounds), I wore a t-shirt with Brando's image on it. Hmm... maybe in West Hollywood...

interview with alain de botton

An interesting interview with Alain de Botton, author of the recently published Status Anxiety (full disclosure: on the reading list, not yet read) and also How Proust Can Change Your Life and On Love (thumbs up for both). Perhaps it's time to dust off de Tocqueville...