Friday, November 26, 2010

Black Friday

Editor's note --  Left-over Thanksgiving news:  Slate complains about the tastelessness of white-meat turkey. The Old Foodie offers a "few enthusiastic words." 


The Unbearable Whiteness of White Meat
Dark meat is better. Why don't we love it more?


 Slate 
 by GardnersGazette
Thanksgiving turkey: The mortal struggle between dark meat and white meat.: Let me say at the outset, I don't ...

White meat turkey has no taste. Its slabs of dry, fibrous material are more like cardboard conveyances, useful only for transporting flavorsome food like stuffing and gravy from plate to mouth. It's less a foodstuff than a turkey app, simulated meat, a hyperlink to real food.
But I am fascinated by how tastes get made and unmade, the intersection of culture, class and sensory responses. Not being a postmodernist I wouldn't call the overwhelming American preference for white-meat turkey a form of cultural hegemony. More like a mass hallucination. Why, for instance, hasn't white meat shared the same fate, the same cultural disenfranchisement, as packaged white bread?                               
"Why White Meat," asks Slate.

Editor's note -- "Here are the enthusiastic words of a columnist in the New York Times of May 13, 1941" ...


"The Hazards of Making Gravy" RT @ Solving the gravy problem in 1941 

Ready-to-Cook Gravy Latest Addition to Quick Aids for Harassed Housewife.

"We are in a perpetual state of amazement these days over the endless parade of culinary short-cuts constantly coming into view. If things keep up at this rate much longer, filling the water glasses will be the most taxing part of preparing a full-course feast." ... 


Editor's note -- and a The Old Foodie "Quotation for the Day" ...

"....grease is not gravy. How often I have wished, from the depths of a loathing stomach, that certain well-meaning housekeepers - at whose boards I have sat as guest or boarder - who fry beefsteak in lard, and send ham to table swimming in fat; upon the surface of whose soups float spheroids of oil that encase the spoon with blubber, and coat the lips and tongue of the eater with flaky scales-that these dear souls who believe in 'old-fashioned cookery,' understood this simple law of digestive gravity!"
Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea, Marion Harland, (Mary Virginia Terhune) (1875)

The Gazette wishes a Happy Thanksgiving to Nicole and Terry!

~8~

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Gray Lady’s newsroom.

Editor's note -- Over three years ago,The New York Times
wondered what would happen to itself 
after it moved to a 53-story skyscraper. 
The New York Post answered that question ... 


"LISTEN." 
"The sound is muffled by wall-to-wall carpet tiles and
 fabric-lined cubicles. But it’s still there, embedded in the concrete and steel sinews of the old factory at 229 West 43rd Street, 
where The New York Times was written and edited yesterday for the last time."
- The New York Times Company archives -
THE ‘FACTORY’ It has something of the look of a French chateau,
but inside it hummed like a machine.            
"... But how can The Times maintain its gravity in the ether? How will it fulfill a commitment to thoroughness, accuracy and detachment if a premium is placed on speed, color and buzz? Can nytimes.com be produced to exactly the same standards as The New York Times? Should it be? If not, what will the new standards be?"
"And what will happen to that perishable, inky, labor-intensive, energy-consuming, tree-swallowing, three-dimensional commodity whose production

lay at the heart of 229 West 43rd Street? 
How much longer will the newspaper itself exist?"
"Certainly, The Times has reinvented itself before. But it always kept one eye on tradition. History meant something here."
"We do know, however, that it will be much quieter on West 43rd Street.
Just listen."

Editor's note -- KA-BLOOM! The New York Times building reinvents itself into a bowling alley!

No Way! RT @ "Let it Roll! New Times Square Alley Bowlmor Promises Dining, Drinking and Yes, Bowling: 
Bowlmor Bob is seen above Bowlmor Lanes on W44th Street in New York,
Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010. (New York Post/Chad Rachman)

"A 25-foot-high neon sign of “Bowlmor Bob” will greet visitors at the
222 W. 44th St. entrance, while inside the spectacle continues with
seven bowling areas inspired by iconic NYC settings such as Central Park, Chinatown and pre-Giuliani Times Square."


Editor's note -- Click on this link to read more about the reinvention of the old New York Times Building!

~8~

Monday, November 15, 2010

Facts about Zelnio

Editor's note --  Kevin Zelnio is a self-described Marine Biologist, Writer, Musician, 
Purveyor of the Spineless, and Evangelist of Open Access.
He has a blog called 
This blog is linked to our sister online publication - Flipside Florida's - 
blog roll because his blog was part of an FF story from last year, 

Another Editor's note -- The Gazette retweeted an amusing
tweet of Zelnio's
that linked to a 404 Error page which was either supposed to be a
 "hipster dinosaur coloring book", 
or was in fact an error. 
Nonetheless, 
is a humorous blog link worthy of keeping.


 Kevin Zelnio 
 by GardnersGazette
LOL seen the hipster dinosaur coloring book? @ Unhappy hipsters   

Editor's note again -- The other link is to a blog entry from


It's just a picture of a fireplace and chimney in the middle of nowhere 
with two people sitting in front of it.


Her refusal to consider his opposition to their architect’s literal interpretation of the open floor plan resulted in a lifetime of bitterness.
(Photo: Chad Holder; Dwell)

~8~



Monday, November 8, 2010

Better Tales of Mud (Pies)

Editor's note -- In what the Gazette can only assume is in reply to its report of Vanity Fair magazine's tweet ... 

! RT @ The Top Five Most Humiliating Details About a British Submarine’s Capture by Some Mud   

... was the issuance of a book review to repair Mud's image by London-
based The Economist newspaper: 

Image courtesy of The Economist via The New York Book Review
#UnconventionalCookbooks Mud pie a-la-mud -- 

"Marjorie Winslow's "Mud Pies and Other Recipes", illustrated by Erik Blegvad, is a cookbook for dolls originally published in 1961. This charming and fastidiously complete resource has been *reissued thankfullyby the New York Review Children's Collection." ...

"... Winslow's book is a gem. If the humour and brio of "Mud Pies" feels somewhat dated, well, that only shows what a shame it is that such offerings are now so few and far between. 
As it happens, 1961 was also the year that Mattel introduced a boyfriend for Barbie in the form of a moulded plastic doll named Ken ©A reader may be forgiven for wishing that Barbie © had been gifted a copy of "Mud Pies" instead.

Editor's note -- Winslow's "Mud Pie" book is a gem as is Martha Stewart's recipe for 


Image courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

"When assembling the cake, use a new doll and wrap it in plastic before putting it in the center of the cake. Candles should absolutely not be used, because Barbie's hair is flammable."

~8~