found_drama

This is the recipe for vegephobes, for the folks (like me?) that do not otherwise care for Brussels sprouts.

We are participating in the Food Basket CSA this winter and this was in our first basket.  I’m not a fan of Brussels sprouts but I’d also never had them fresh before.  So we decided to try this.

Get the following together:

• Brussels sprouts, approx. 1 quart (must be fresh)
• 2 strips of streaky bacon (hickory smoked if you got it, add more if you want it)
• 1 cooking apple, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• nutmeg to taste

Cut the bacon up into bite-sized slices and throw it into a big pan and start the sizzling on moderate heat.  When the bacon has released its fat, toss in the butter and the sprouts (make sure to have de-stemmed the sprouts).  Cook the sprouts down for about 5-10 minutes; they should be a little bit browned.  Then add the lemon juice, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Give it a good stirring and reduce the heat down to low; simmer for another 5-10 minutes.  Add the apple bits and simmer for about another five minutes.  Serve hot.

So good your one-year-old will be signing for more.

Full disclosure:  this recipe is based on one from The Bacon Cookbook; I’ve changed mine up a bit to add the apples later (otherwise they’ll get a bit too mushy).

Image credit: Brussels Sprouts by Barbara L. Hanson (on Flickr); sadly, we ate our Brussels sprouts too quickly to photograph the meal.

In August, I submitted 10 photos to “The Relentless Eye”, an all cameraphone photo exhibit at the Helen Day Art Center¹ in Stowe, Vermont.  Earlier this week I started looking to see if any of my photos made it into the show.  And I’m pleased to say that one did:

And here it is with the other 133 juried photos.

The exhibition opens Friday September 25th (6pm to 9pm) and is at 5 School Street in Stowe:

View Larger Map

Original photo on Flickr.

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1. Also: on Facebook. [↩]

Congratulations to my pals Adam and Sue on their nuptials yesterday atop Mount Philo.  Holy moly what an awesome wedding.  And I had the privilege of photographing the festivities.

Many happy years to you two.

UPDATE: All the pics on Flickr.

I entered a few photos into The Relentless Eye exhibition.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Wish me luck that they’re selected for the show.

Dear Comcast:

Since it seems we’re going to be starting up that provider/customer relationship again, it’s probably best that I tell you now (before I’ve even signed up) that we’re not off to a good start.  We’ll be moving soon (my family, that is) and the little bit of research I’ve done thus far indicates that you’re the only high-speed ISP in that area.  Despite my previous groanings and grumblings¹, I told myself to get over it and at least check out the available options.  That’s when I saw this:

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1. I’ll admit to a slight prejudice.  But it’s been based on the less-than-stellar service and pricing options. [↩]

My five Re-Tweets of fame:

Re this Tweet¹ which is re this picture:

How did I miss all that traffic? Better double-check that the @replies feed is in the ol’ RSS reader…

Original picture on Flickr.

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1. Twhat? Is it really “Tweet”? Not “Twit”? Or “Twuote”? [↩]

Seen on my Flickr home page, part of the Library of Congress’ upload feed.

If you haven’t seen the “You have 2 cows…” series of economics jokes…  Well, try here, here, and here.  And now, a polished version of an off-the-cuff crack I made earlier today:
 

A VERMONT CORPORATION

You have two cows.

One makes cheese, the other makes ice cream.

Responding to allegations of rBGH injections on your farm, hippies show up and protest with a “festival” on your property, effectively shutting down your operation for two weeks during the summer.

Your son moves to Boston and starts an unsuccessful marketing company.

I’ve got enough LOLs from folks to feel justified in declaring: ha!

What are your economic cow joke(s)?

It’s a convention almost as old as the web itself.  If you need some graphics to go along with your story, you just go out and find them.  We crib images from each other all the time.  I’ve done it.  You’ve done it¹.  It’s just something that people do.  Right?

Maybe in the Internet’s Wild West days — those dorm room late-nights of the mid- and late-90s, those pre-Napster-crash days when it was still easy to buy into the premise that the web was free as in beer.  Bandwidth was cheap and once you set your content free (unfettered by a pay-wall) then you were effectively giving it to everyone.  For free!  Gratis excelsior!

But that wasn’t really true.  Not really.  Not even then.

And especially not now.  Not now that phrases like “DRM” and “fair use” and “intellectual property” are all practically known by every Grandma and Girl Scout out there.  But it’s a sticky one sometimes, this question of fair use.  If a professional (say…  James Duncan Davidson²) publishes an iconic photo online, watermarks it, and labels it as copyrighted — well, it’s pretty clear cut what’s right and what’s wrong when that photo shows up unattributed on some other site.

But what about those cases that aren’t as clear cut?

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1. And don’t tell me you haven’t. [↩]
2. A man who has written on this topic several times. [↩]