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Matt is an aspiring rock star (and Masters student in Public Policy at Brown University) who lives with his charming and beautiful wife in Providence, Rhode Island.

Appeaser appeaser appeaser appeaser

You want to know what’s great? Watching Chris Matthews smack down some right wing shout-y person who doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.

2008 05 15 Politics Comments (3)

That’s What She Said

Really, when one is stuffing sausage, it’s pretty hard to resist making junior high jokes. So why resist?

This was basically Alton Brown’s recipe, except that I forgot the parsley and added paprika and red pepper flake. It was delicious, and surprisingly easy to make, fill, and cook.

Making Sausage (by mharvey75)

I cooked them by poaching them in a splash of water, covered, then removed the lid so the water could cook off, and then seared them. I ended up overstuffing the sausages, so the casings burst during cooking in a few cases, but that was OK, as they held their shape anyway.

Sausage, Made (by mharvey75) Sausage, Delicious (by mharvey75)

2008 05 15 Food Comments (2)

Gas Tax?

I’m too angry to write anything sensible about Clinton’s and McCain’s unbelievably stupid “gas tax holiday,” so read Robert Reich instead.

So, so stupid.

2008 05 05 Politics Comments (0)

Andrea Coller

I’m privileged to be part of a group of writers that meet up, a few times a year, for weekend retreats at the home of our fearless leader in Northampton. It’s that rare group where the friendly and sincere compliments that we give each other on our work aren’t, for the most part, just being polite. We like each other, and we like each other’s writing, and that’s a recipe for a good time, and for good friends: the kind of friends with whom you can spend a few weekends a year and feel like it’s been forever. In a good way.

A few retreats ago I met Andrea Coller, a writer, singer, songwriter, and all around swell person. She’s one of those artists, if I may throw the term around, who’s good enough to almost piss you off. You wonder, how did she get so good? Does she know how good she is? She can’t possibly, or she’d be much less pleasant to be around.

Several months ago, Andrea read us a short memoir piece that blew me away, and I wasn’t particularly surprised to learn that a longer version of it won Glamour Magazine’s non-fiction writing contest. Read it for yourself, and trust me when I tell you that everything I’ve ever heard that she’s written was this good.

No, go on. Read it.

It’s pretty nearly unutterably sad that Andrea died yesterday, at age 29. I was honored to have been able to partake of her talent and to claim her as a friend.

Update: Jennifer Weiner, one of the judges of the Glamour contest, blogs briefly about Andrea.

2008 05 01 Blog Comments (5)

Biggest Little

I didn’t have an accurate perception of how Rhode Island stacks up against other states, and this report is really interesting. We have relatively high unemployment, but relatively low uninsurance. I imagine our high ranking on NCLB standards could be used to justify our relatively high per-student spending. And our little state is fairly green, ranking very near the bottom in CO2 emissions (in absolute and per capita terms).

Thanks to Dan for the link!

2008 04 29 Blog Comments (1)

A Black Name

Racism is alive and well! Daisy’s post on being a white woman with a “black-sounding” first name is a good read.

2008 04 28 Blog Comments (0)

Duh

Apo asks and answers the right question: why would Republicans try to kill a bill allowing hand recounts and paper trails for electronic voting machines? Because they plan to cheat.

2008 04 25 Politics Comments (0)

So…?

This seems like a pretty cut and dry case of an industry group promoting their economic interest over public safely in a laughably obvious way, right?

[Rhode Island] has proposed banning vehicles with more than two axles from two key bridges that are weakened by deterioration, the Route 24 bridge over the Sakonnet River and the Route 95 bridge over the Pawtucket River.

The state says that the weight limits it has imposed on both bridges aren’t working well enough, while the trucking industry says that the state’s plan would fall most heavily on local businesses and force thousands of trucks that aren’t heavily loaded to take detours.

The clash of interests the plan raises — the cost and inconvenience of detours versus the need to protect two major bridges that are failing — points to the difficulty the state is having maintaining its transportation system.

Just to recap, the clash of interests are:

  1. Cost and inconvenience of detours
  2. Failing bridges

Seems like an easy choice to me.

2008 04 25 Politics Comments (0)

Our Media

Kotsko’s point about what’s wrong with the media is astute. Here, too, the filthy hippie.

2008 04 23 Politics Comments (0)

“History Will Not Judge This Kindly”

Jesus Fucking Christ, d’ya think?

2008 04 10 Minipost Comments (0)

John McCain Knows Less About The Economy Than I Do

And I’m not even running for president.

2008 04 10 Minipost Comments (0)

We Are What We Eat… And Plant

The farm bill is up for re-authorization, and it’s as awful as ever.

2008 04 10 Minipost Comments (1)

Mukasey Hedges on Fourth Amendment

Never a good sign when, “Does the Fourth Amendment still apply?” doesn’t get a straight answer.

2008 04 10 Minipost Comments (1)

In Which We Take A Brief Tour of Crazytown

Via the Poor Man, I truly hope that this comment is serious, and not a parody:

The claim that the melting of the ice caps will cause sea levels to rise which intern will flood large parts of the land mass; if this were true, then that would mean man has more power than God because God said he’d never flood the earth again.

I don’t know about you but I’m more apt to believe scripture than I am these socialist wacko’s who are trying to scare us in to submission.

Right? That’s gooooood crazy.

2008 04 09 Blog Comments (1)

Double Gin-ger

I originally posted this as a comment over at Unfogged, but I think it’s worth reposting here. I have to share with you the most delicious of beverages, which I have just concocted from a recipe of my own design.

First! Boil 2 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar in a saucepan for 4-5 minutes, and then add approximately 6 inches of peeled fresh ginger, sliced. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, strain out the ginger, and reduce the remaining liquid to an oozy syrup. Put the ginger in a Mason jar, pour over the syrup, cool to room temperature, and store in your refrigerator.

Later that same day! Pour an appropriate amount of cold gin into the glass of your choosing. Stir in two good teaspoons of the ginger syrup. Do you wish to add a piece of the candied ginger as well? By all means!

Stir vigorously! Top with a splash of soda water! Enjoy what I have decided to call the “Double Gin-ger.”

Drink one, and then post about it to your blog. Huzzah!

2008 04 05 Food Comments (1)

Candied Kumquats

Hmm. “Candied kumquats” sounds vaguely inappropriate.

Well, it’s not! I was in a bizarrely citrus-y mood at Whole Foods yesterday; perhaps I have a vitamin C deficiency I don’t know about? Whatever the reason, my shopping basket ended up looking like Carmen Miranda took a header into it. (Are Carmen Miranda fruit jokes deprecated yet?) I bought blood oranges, some kind of pink-fleshed orange called Caro Caro, Meyer lemons, and a pint of kumquats.

Elise from Simply Recipes posted a recipe for candied kumquats which turns out to be almost too easy: make a sugar syrup and cook some kumquats in it. The result? A Mason jar full of shiny, gooey, orange love. The kumquats taste like the best marmalade you ever had, and the syrup ain’t too shabby in a cup of tea.

Candied Kumquats Candied Kumquats

2008 04 04 Food Comments (0)

Superbad

It’s basically American Pie, isn’t it, with the gross-out humor replaced with awkwardness humor? Still, I laughed. It’s fun to see Michael Cera playing a role that isn’t basically just George Michael.

2008 04 03 Movies Comments (1)

Shoot ‘Em Up

Rating: 3 stars

***

My friend Andrew once proposed that there are some things that are so preposterous they go beyond the mere ridiculous: they are, instead, ricockulous.

This movie is ricockulous. When none of the actors are saying their idiotic lines, it’s a pretty damn cool action movie, though.

2008 04 03 Movies Comments (0)

Exceeds Expectations

Every time I think we’ve discovered the most bald-faced anti-democratic lunacy this administration can come up with, they top themselves.

For at least 16 months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, the Bush administration believed that the Constitution’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures on U.S. soil didn’t apply to its efforts to protect against terrorism.

That’s right: Fourth Amendment? Not in the TERROR ZONE!

2008 04 03 Politics Comments (0)

More on the Wright/Obama “Controversy”

Here are some words of wisdom:

There are several ironies at work in conservative criticism of Wright. The first is that I have never heard so many conservatives express concern for black children in my entire life. Unmoved by decrepit, segregated schools, their parents working two or three jobs without guarantee of health care, and dismissive of their abuse at the hand of law enforcement officials, they are suddenly terrified that the Obama children will grow up hating white people.

They shouldn’t be concerned about them. They should be concerned about the children living through what I have described above. Those kids don’t need a Reverend Wright to tell them what they already know.

2008 03 29 Politics Comments (0)