From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V12 #272 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Tuesday, July 15 2003 Volume 12 : Number 272 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: That Robin Guthrie solo album has some rather nice cover art. [Jeff ] Food, sport, movies, and quizzes. What else do you want? [grutness@surf4n] Signs of the Apocolypse [Jeff Dwarf ] Re: scones ["Stewart C. Russell" ] check this out!! 0% RH [Marcy Tanter ] whale rider ["ross taylor" ] scONes ["ross taylor" ] Re:The new Quasi ["ross taylor" ] trivia, Solomon, and the everlasting evil of Berbati's ["Natalie Jane" ] Re: RE: scones ["Stewart C. Russell" ] currently not drinking or listening.... [tanter@tarleton.edu] Re: You say goodbye i say hello toronto [Barbara Soutar ] RE: scones [tanter@tarleton.edu] Or just call 'em Bisquick... ["Rex.Broome" ] Re: scones [Caroline Smith ] RE: scones [Michael R Godwin ] Re: scones ["Glen Uber" ] Re: Football (Soccer content 0%) ["Gene Hopstetter, Jr." ] Re: scones ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: scones [Tom Clark ] RE: whale rider ["Brian Huddell" ] Mmmmmm...clotted cream ["Iosso, Ken" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 04:51:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: That Robin Guthrie solo album has some rather nice cover art. Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > Jeff Dwarf wrote: > > > Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > >> But then there was the Pro Player Stadium nightmare. I > >> like baseball a lot. > >> There's no baseball to speak of in Germany and you > >> can't even watch MLB matches on TV (as opposed to NBA, > >> NHL and NFL matches). > > > > Exhibit 39,894,455 that Bud Selig is too stupid to > > live. > > > > Very odd seeing it called a match though.... > > Oops, was that an, hmm, anglicism? Are they always called > ballgames in the US? Or just game. I think about the only sports where we ever referred to being a match here is tennis or wrestling; maybe boxing. > And do you think it's Bud Selig's fault that they can't > break overseas markets? Selig is, for those of you who don't know, currently the commissioner of baseball, and in a conflict of interest the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. Amongst other things. Mind you, I can't say whether or not baseball could ever become more than a boutique sport in Europe, but given that it does catch on to some extent wherever given a chance, it seems odd that it wouldn't be available on some sort of package. Baseball certain has done well in most of the places where given a chance to spread (see Japan, Latin America, Korea, Taiwan, even Australia somewhat these days supposedly -- at least, there are a fair number of Australians now in the majors). It's just another example of Bud's anti-marketing, along with complaining about how hard it is for "small-market" teams to compete, everyone needs a new stadium, etc. Nevermind that the great amount of talent that has been emerging the past few years, or the many other things they could use to really market effectively. As opposed to the NBA, where David Stern (their commissioner) never would say anything negatively publicly even though the NBA is as unwatchable today as its ever been since nobody can actually shoot the ball into the damn hoop. Selig is probably the worst thing to happen to Major League Baseball since the Black Sox Scandal. > > I'm under the impression that Pro Player is a pretty > awful > > place to watch baseball, but I've never been there or > > anywhere near it. > > Actually I thought the stadium itself was quite nice. > I've only been to Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium before, > but Pro Player has very nice features - the aisles are > very spacious, for example. ===== "Being accused of hating America by people like Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham is like being accused of hating children by Michael Jackson or (Cardinal) Bernard Law." -- anonymous . __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 00:45:43 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Food, sport, movies, and quizzes. What else do you want? >To me, a pancake is a small, 1/4" thick, spongey batter cake cooked on a >griddle. If you're from the rest of the UK, you might know then as drop >scones or Scotch pancakes. sounds like pikelets to me! Very tasty, and so simple a child of five could make 'em. Crumpets are different again. - --- >Football (Soccer content 0%) Football, no soccer content... okay, it was good to see the ;boks beat the Wallabies, who were a disorganised shambles. Then again, with the bizarre selection decisions that John Mitchell's been making, the ABs are gonna struggle to mount a reasonable challenge for the World Cup this year. It'd be a real pain to see it go to the northern hemisphere, but I've got to admit England look pretty strong, and France won't be pushovers. - --- > and manufactured naughtiness without a lot of the "heart" > that Pixar seems to mine so effortlessly. Shrek wasn't terrrible, and it > was occasionally funny, but I find it *overrated* considering that its > gross was comparable to, and it won the Oscar over, Monsters Inc. gross was actually less than for Monsters Inc. ($US469m compared with $US529m) Which shouldn't make any difference but, well, we all know that Hollywood pays attention to the call of the green. - --- >>And, just to vent some more about trivia, am I getting sick of the huge >>teams! > >The only way we could win against the huge teams was to get a huge team of >our own. We should've gotten best team name, too. pub quizzes in the US don't have limits on team sizes??? Here all trivia quizzes limit team size (usually to six) James (former co-leader of Zymurgy, which usually finished third to the Rattray Street Rats and Knot A Clew in Dunedin's main pub quizzes) James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- =-.-=-.-=-.- You talk to me as if from a distance .-=-.-=-.-=-. -=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time .-=- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 06:13:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Signs of the Apocolypse http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/03-07/15.shtml My Bloody Valentine Return to Studio to Complete Unfinished Album, Shields Scores Coppola Film My bloody waistline rejected outright by USDA Ed Howard reports: Well, first the Pixies announce they may decide to reform, and now this! What the hell is going on with the 1990s these days? We all knew the jig was up twelve years ago when My Bloody Valentine walked out of their final studio session. And I mean, okay, maybe reclusive frontman Kevin Shields has been just slightly more musically active in the past few years than he initially was after MBV broke up, but there were virtually no indication that any new music would ever be released under the MBV name. And yet, Pitchfork has now received word from secret sources that members of the band are presently holed up a Berlin studio, recording material for a forthcoming My Bloody Valentine box set. The trio of Kevin Shields, Colin O'Ciosiog and Bilinda Butcher (vocalist Debbie Googe is apparently not present) are reportedly re-recording five songs that the band abandoned for their 1989 EP Glider. The EP, released in between 1988's Isn't Anything and the group's undisputed masterpiece, the dream-pop landmark Loveless, was originally meant to be a nine-song full-length album, but the band, as usual, was took too long to record it and eventually caved to pressure from the industry and released the four finished songs as an EP. The remaining five unfinished songs from the sessions were shelved indefinitely as the band proceeded to work on Loveless-- and with the group's breakup soon after, "indefinitely" seemed to turn into "forever" for those missing tunes. Now that could all change. The box set, which is tentatively due out this winter, is said to contain the long-awaited full version of My Bloody Valentine's Glider album, fleshed out by the new recordings. There is, however, no word yet as to what else the box set might contain, or even what label may decide to release it. Meanwhile, Kevin Shields has also recorded some music on his own. Following last year's instrumental "Outro" on the UK compilation You Don't Need Darkness to Do What You Think Is Right and his producing/remixing/guitar work with Primal Scream, Curve, and others, Shields has scored the new Sofia Coppola film Lost in Translation. Four of Shields' score contributions will appear on the film's soundtrack, out September 9th on Emperor Norton (which also released Air's soundtrack to Coppola's The Virgin Suicides). The soundtrack also features My Bloody Valentine's "Sometimes" (from Loveless) and two new songs from the pairing of Jellyfish/Beck keyboardist Roger Manning and Redd Kross drummer Brian Reitzell. The film itself, which will hit theaters in New York and Los Angeles on September 19th, features Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, and Giovanni Ribisi. Murray and Johansson star as two Americans who meet in Tokyo, explore the city, and discover the truth about themselves, yadda yadda yadda. Tracklist: 01 "Intro/Tokyo" 02 Kevin Shields - "City Girl" 03 Brian Reitzell & Roger J. Manning Jr. - "Shibuya" 04 Sebastian Tellier - "Fantino" 05 Kevin Shields - "Golf Course" 06 Death In Vegas - "Girls" 07 Squarepusher - "Tommib" 08 Phoenix - "Too Young" 09 Happy End - "Kaze Wo Atsumete" 10 Brian Reitzell & Roger J. Manning Jr. - "On the Subway" 11 Kevin Shields - "Ikebana" 12 My Bloody Valentine - "Sometimes" 13 Air - "Alone in Kyoto" 14 Kevin Shields - "Are You Awake?" 15 The Jesus & Mary Chain - "Just Like Honey" .: My Bloody Valentine: http://www.expectdelay.com/mbv ===== "Being accused of hating America by people like Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham is like being accused of hating children by Michael Jackson or (Cardinal) Bernard Law." -- anonymous . __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 9:41:00 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: scones Michael wrote: > > Lying on an ironing board in the Sahara, I > suppose? :-) (-: yeah, it was, actually. Or the Carlton Hotel, in Truro. > I was always told that 'pikelets' is the > northern word for what we > sassenachs call 'crumpets'. Pancakes, to me, are none of the above. There's no yeast involved. I'm told that the pikelet/crumpet/... confusion arises because there are more words for this (or these) cakes than any other, plus many variants that are given the same name. Confusingly, but true to the spirit of messed-up English usage, pancakes are both the little spongey griddle-cakes AND the big flat crepe-like things that we have on Shrove Tuesday. One eats the former with unsalted butter, the latter with sugar and lemon juice. Do otherwise, and you're wrong and/or different. ;-) > But I hadn't realised that there was any > confusion between a griddle and a > girdle. hoo yeah. If I said that my grandmother, who made the best possible pancakes, never washed her girdle, but merely wiped it down with some newspaper and hung it up until next time, what would you say? Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:41:23 -0500 From: Marcy Tanter Subject: check this out!! 0% RH This is a schoolteacher's response to the playing cards that feature Iraqis. http://www.operationhiddenagenda.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:04:02 -0400 From: "ross taylor" Subject: whale rider Just saw Whale Rider with the family this weekend. In places it was a bit slow, but the charactors were appealing (the lead child actor was wonderful) & it seemed to give a good sense of a particular cultural situation -- New Zeland Maori trying to maintain customs in the present. It also seemed like an intelligent, horizon-broadening film for the family. Well, it has a couple of "bad" words, but they deal w/ the differences between boys & girls, which is very relevant to families. I'm mostly wondering what James thinks of it. James, I seem to remember you have some Maori blood? I could have just addressed him, but there's been a spate of movie discussion. Possible Robyn content -- lobsters & whale barnacles? Ross Taylor Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com - --------- End Forwarded Message --------- Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:36:37 -0400 From: "ross taylor" Subject: scONes Hearing people talk about scones and clotted cream is much more fun than hearing people talk about how skinny they are. Ross Taylor "Would you like some more?" asked Rabbit. "Oh ... Is there any more?" said Pooh. "No, actually there isn't," said Rabbit. Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:41:24 -0400 From: "ross taylor" Subject: Re:The new Quasi Eugene: >No way you people are getting rid of me. That's the spirit, boys and girls! Ross Taylor "no sweeping exits or offstage lines could make me be bitter or treat you unkind" Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:34:46 -0700 From: "Natalie Jane" Subject: trivia, Solomon, and the everlasting evil of Berbati's > > It was something > > like, "I got up at 3:30 to serve you coffee so you can take your non-fat > > soymilk extra-large cappucino and shove it up your ass!" except it was a > > lot longer than that. (Jane works at Starbucks.) > >Oh, that wasn't last week! That was two weeks ago. Oh, that's right, we were seeing the Pernice Brothers last week. I forgot to relate a funny story about the Pernice Brothers... they were about to do their song "Baby in Two" and Joe Pernice explained that it was not about literally cutting a baby in two... then he started talking about the shit they got for their song "Shaken Baby" - some angry woman found out about the song via a search engine, e-mailed them and chewed them out, then asked for money for her anti-shaken baby cause. (I'm not sure what it is about Joe Pernice and babies, but never mind.) >I don't know... I think Berbati's has a high "oh, I'm Jim's friend" >content. Yeah, probably. >I saw The Billy Nayer Show at both Berbati's and the Blackbird. The >Blackbird audiences seem at least as disinterested in my book (I know, I >know, of course they're not interested in my book). I remember now that I've seen Quasi at both venues, and the only real difference was the awful girl at Berbati's who took flash photos every 30 seconds. I wanted to punch her out, but she was bigger than me. A lot bigger. It probably depends on the band... come to think of it, Interpol and Spoon both have quite a bit of cache right now, thus attracting people who are there to be seen rather than to listen to the band. n. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 16:36:10 +0100 From: Dr John Halewood Subject: RE: scones Capuchin scribbled: > On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, James Dignan wrote: > > Pikelets are like sorta mini pancakes (um, flapjacks in the US?) a > > couple of inches across and thicker. Don't know what they're called > > overseas, or even if they exist. > > Err... "flapjacks" is a sort of regionalism or colloquialism. > Most folks > are going to call them pancakes. Pikelets sound like pancakes of the > "silver dollar" variety. Um. Well to me and most of the people I know (who admittedly are mostly British, albeit from rather diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds), a "flapjack" is a cake generally made with rolled oats, sugar and golden syrup or honey, frequently topped with chocolate. I don't think it's got much to do with an egg and milk batter based recipe. Mind you, it might be an Americanism: they call Budweiser and the like "beer", while I generally refer to it as "undrinkable octopus piss". Or something like that. cheers john n.d. Caledonian Deuchars IPA. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 11:49:16 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: RE: scones Dr John wrote: > > n.d. Caledonian Deuchars IPA. mmm -- one of my absolute favourites. They don't know how to age IPA here, it's always served too young. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:51:28 -0500 (CDT) From: tanter@tarleton.edu Subject: currently not drinking or listening.... I'm sitting here as my technical writing class peer edits resumes and cover letters....I should probably be playing some appropriate incidental music...! Marcy ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:54:46 -0700 From: Barbara Soutar Subject: Re: You say goodbye i say hello toronto Stewart said: >looks like it might have to be in my basement; I have space. >I'm completely the other side of town from Burlington, tho', but I am >near a TTC station. > Very kind of you Stewart. Now is a TTC station the same as the GO Train? Mmmmm, cream teas. I had one in Devon (part of genealogy research on grandfather) and it was heavenly. My mother serves strawberry shortcake using scones and this does indeed come fairly close to the wonderfulness. Liked the fan comments re: Rush Limbaugh. The winds of change are going to hit him pretty hard and I'm happy to see that his kingdom of hate is falling down. Barbara Soutar Victoria, British Columbia ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 09:06:20 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: Food, sport, movies, and quizzes. What else do you want? On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, James Dignan wrote: > >>And, just to vent some more about trivia, am I getting sick of the huge > >>teams! > > > >The only way we could win against the huge teams was to get a huge team of > >our own. We should've gotten best team name, too. > > pub quizzes in the US don't have limits on team sizes??? Here all trivia > quizzes limit team size (usually to six) Tuesday Trivia at Beulahland should not be confused with pub quizzes in the US generally. "The only rule at Jimmy's trivia is that Jimmy's trivia has no rules." James has countered the huge team sizes by making the questions MUCH harder in recent months. I went to another trivia run by a budding fascist, also named Jimmy. He was a dick. However, he had a very interesting rule of subtracting the number of people on your team off the top of your score. However, the prizes were shit and he didn't even give a pitcher to the winners, just "drink vouchers" and only one per person. This negates the OTHER benefit of having a small team. > James (former co-leader of Zymurgy, which usually finished third to the > Rattray Street Rats and Knot A Clew in Dunedin's main pub quizzes) Oh, also at Jimmy's trivia (Beulahland) team names are totally arbitrary. And since a prize is given to the team with the best name, they've essentially degraded into one-liners; usually puns or foul jokes related to current events... bonus points for referencing the recently deceased. I must say that this list's reaps really help there. In fact, this list also probably taught me everything I know about sports and surely answered a dozen questions for me over the last couple of years. I am particularly proud of the fact that I was able to GUESS (and I mean that truthfully... no actual memory involved) all the correct answers to a three part question regarding the most home runs in a World Series, who hit them, and when. I am still very proud of that. J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 09:11:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: That Robin Guthrie solo album has some rather nice cover art. On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > > Very odd seeing it called a match though.... > > Oops, was that an, hmm, anglicism? Are they always called ballgames in > the US? Generally, in a sport that usually involves contests between two individuals, a single contest is called a "match" and in a sport that usually involves contests between two teams of two or more individuals, a single contest is called a "game". Of course, doubles tennis would then have matches and one-on-one basketball would have games. Dig? Exceptions, americans? J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 09:13:40 -0700 From: "Glen Uber" Subject: Re: Food, sport, movies, and quizzes. What else do you want? Capuchin earnestly scribbled: >I am particularly proud of the fact that I was able to GUESS >(and I mean that truthfully... no actual memory involved) all the correct >answers to a three part question regarding the most home runs in a World >Series, who hit them, and when. I am still very proud of that. 3, Reggie Jackson, NY Yankees vs. Los Angeles, 1977. Q.E.D. - -- Cheers! - -g- "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer." - --Frank Zappa ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 17:32:46 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: RE: scones On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Dr John Halewood wrote: > Um. Well to me and most of the people I know (who admittedly are mostly > British, albeit from rather diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds), a > "flapjack" is a cake generally made with rolled oats, sugar and golden syrup > or honey, Absolutely right, no problems with that. > frequently topped with chocolate. But around here, if you top your flapjack with chocolate, it automatically becomes a 'Marshfield tiffin'. Further research reveals that this is a proprietary name, but, as with Hoovers, the trade name has gone into general (if local) usage. - - MRG ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 11:36:44 -0500 (CDT) From: tanter@tarleton.edu Subject: RE: scones So I guess that chocolate HobNobs are McVitie's version of flapjack? sort of...? Marcy ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 09:52:07 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Or just call 'em Bisquick... James: >>Pikelets are like sorta mini pancakes (um, flapjacks in the US?) Pancakes in the US, flapjacks in western movies and tall tales.. ________ Jeme: >>Amazed at how many people's headaches are car-caused while the dots are >>never connected Ehh, the dots are connected. I really dislike cars. But I live in Los Angeles; cars are the only game in town. Even more problems are money-caused, but realizing it doesn't mean you can get away from the stuff entirely... We might move. We really might. I dunno. It's a confusing week. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 09:42:29 -0700 From: "Glen Uber" Subject: Sports reap Tex Schramm, 83 - -- Cheers! - -g- "Work is the curse of the drinking class." - --Oscar Wilde ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 12:48:38 -0400 From: Caroline Smith Subject: Re: scones On Tuesday, July 15, 2003, at 12:32 PM, Michael R Godwin wrote: > >> frequently topped with chocolate. > > But around here, if you top your flapjack with chocolate, it > automatically > becomes a 'Marshfield tiffin'. Further research reveals that this is a > proprietary name, but, as with Hoovers, the trade name has gone into > general (if local) usage. > > > Ah, now I'm reminded of Beavertails. A warm, yummy treat during Ottawa's deep freeze winters. I prefer the classic cinnamon and sugar. http://www.beavertailsinc.com/product.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 17:49:32 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: RE: scones On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 tanter@tarleton.edu wrote: > So I guess that chocolate HobNobs are McVitie's version of flapjack? sort > of...? Too biscuity and not rolled-oatsy enough, I would have said. Those health-food snack bars are often very like flapjack - made by Jordans in the UK. - - Mike Godwin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 09:52:53 -0700 From: "Glen Uber" Subject: Re: scones Caroline earnestly scribbled: >Ah, now I'm reminded of Beavertails. A warm, yummy treat during >Ottawa's deep freeze winters. I prefer the classic cinnamon and >sugar. Does anyone want to touch this one? Tom? - -- Cheers! - -g- "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer." - --Frank Zappa ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 12:11:18 -0500 From: "Gene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: Re: Football (Soccer content 0%) On Tuesday, July 15, 2003, at 06:35 AM, Glen Uber wrote: > Apologies if this gets sent twice. My SMTP server is a bit squonky > tonight. Squonk? Like the Genesis song "Squonk"? Hey, Genesis is prog, just like Rush. Who thinks Genesis is more prog than Rush? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 12:14:03 -0500 From: "Gene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: Re: The Nora Quasi UglyNoraGrrl lamented: > That's it i'm giving up my dream of every being in a good band or > writing a good song because those 9 and 11 year old girls have more > talent now than i've ever approached in my 28 years. Pshaw! When I dream of being in a band, being good doesn't usually enter into it. Or talent, for that matter. Heck, it didn't stop Kim Gordon, now did it? I just dream of having my CD reviewed (or eehhed) by Eb, to be called the "Next Avril Lavigne" by CNN, and get po-mo deconstructed by a bunch of rabid Fegs. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 13:26:44 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: scones Caroline Smith wrote: > > Ah, now I'm reminded of Beavertails. A warm, > yummy treat during > Ottawa's deep freeze winters. mmm-mmm! The only time we were in Ottawa -- mid-April, river still frozen -- we pigged out on those. They're good. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:52:21 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: scones on 7/15/03 9:52 AM, Glen Uber at apostrophe@cruxofthebiscuit.com wrote: > Caroline earnestly scribbled: > >> Ah, now I'm reminded of Beavertails. A warm, yummy treat during >> Ottawa's deep freeze winters. I prefer the classic cinnamon and >> sugar. > > Does anyone want to touch this one? Tom? I am just reminded of the opening montage of "The Kids In The Hall", when Mark McKinney is riding past a "Beaver" gas station and just gives a knowing grin. - -t "sugar yes, cinnamon no" c ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 12:52:29 -0500 From: "Brian Huddell" Subject: RE: whale rider Ross: > I'm mostly wondering what James thinks of it. I saw it and liked it and was going to ask the same question. Now I don't have to! +brian (can't see a kiwifruit without thinking of James) in New Orleans ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 13:07:48 -0500 From: "Iosso, Ken" Subject: Mmmmmm...clotted cream Down narrow lanes to the rich source of clotted cream By R.W. APPLE Jr. c.2003 New York Times News Service COAD'S GREEN, England - William Ewart Gladstone, the great Victorian prime minister, called clotted cream "the food of the gods." George Blake, a Briton who spied on his own country and now lives in exile in Moscow, said recently that the only thing he really misses from his homeland is clotted cream for the Christmas pudding that he makes every year. Magnificent stuff it is, too - rich, luxuriously thick and golden, the very essence of self-indulgence. It has been made here in the southwest corner of England, principally in the counties of Devon and Cornwall, which face each other across the River Tamar, for at least 600 years. The poet Edmund Spenser mentions "clouted cream" in "The Shepheard's Calendar" (1579). Because a similar product is made in the Middle East, notably in Lebanon, the food historian Alan Davidson theorizes that the recipe may have been brought to Cornwall 2,000 years ago by Phoenicians trading here in tin. Clotted cream is made by scalding either whole milk or fresh cream. It is a finicky process. Too hot and the cream develops a gritty texture; too cool and the result is bland. The finished product can be spooned or spread but not poured; it has a consistency somewhere between butter and whipped cream. In winter, when the cows must eat fodder, the clotted cream is the color of hazelnuts, but when the grass in the pastures is green, the cream is yellow as a jonquil. As a topping for desserts - apple pie, for instance, or the steamed ginger and rhubarb pudding at the delightful Arundell Arms Hotel in Lifton, Devon, or a simple bowl of fresh berries - clotted cream is nonpareil. As an ingredient in sweet and savory dishes, it adds an unmistakable lushness. But it achieves its apotheosis when slathered shamelessly onto a warm scone, together with homemade preserves. A.E. Rodda & Son, based at Scorrier in Cornwall, is the largest producer, using the milk of more than 7,000 cows during the peak season. Rodda cream was served at tea time by the late Queen Mother. It is served on British Airways planes, and it is also exported to the United States, Japan, Australia and many other countries. In my view, though, the best, most sensually satisfying clotted cream comes from small producers using old methods. Perhaps the most tradition-minded of all is Barbara Lake, 58, who lives near this hamlet in the 300-year-old house in which she was born. The house is approached down a narrow lane lined with eight-foot hedgerows so studded with pink, blue and white wildflowers that my wife, Betsey, said she felt as if she were driving through a roll of wallpaper. Lake, a stocky woman in trousers, flowered sweater and boots, keeps 11 cows, half Jerseys and half Guernseys. These fawn-colored breeds, both of which originated in the Channel Islands, produce milk with an exceptionally high percentage of butterfat. A one-woman show, Lake milks her herd morning and evening, separates the cream from the milk and puts the cream into a shallow enamel pan. (She feeds the skim milk to her pigs.) She took me into a square low-ceilinged room, about 12 feet by 12 feet, which contains a table piled high with newspapers and magazines, a few chairs, a television set, a small sideboard and an old oil-fired Rayburn stove. She cooks her meals on the stove, and she cooks her cream there, too. The enamel pan floats in a larger aluminum pan filled with hot water, forming a primitive sort of bain-marie or double boiler. Lake heats the cream to no more than 85 degrees Centigrade, which takes about an hour and 45 minutes. It must not boil. After a time, small bubbles rise to the surface, and then the cream darkens as a blister-marked crust forms on top. Having cooled for two or three hours, the clotted cream goes into the refrigerator. When Lake gets an order, she ladles some into a quarter-pound container - "a little crust from the top, a little smooth from the bottom in each one, for the best texture," she told me. She charges 65 pence, $1.07, if the customer picks it up. The week I visited her, Lake made 42 pounds of cream on her stove. Using specially designed ovens, Rodda's makes about 10 tons a day. In spring and summer, you can't move a mile in the West Country without seeing signs offering cream teas, posted by hotels, restaurants, cafes, tea houses and working farms. No vacation in the region is considered complete without one. A cream tea is as essential here as a lobster dinner is to a trip to Maine or a bowl of clam chowder is to a weekend on Cape Cod. English eyes sparkle when the talk turns to cream teas, and rigorous standards are enforced. The tea itself should be freshly made in a pot, of course, not with tea bags. The scones, which are large, firm biscuits, slightly sweetened and leavened with baking powder, should still be warm from the oven, but not hot. If they are hot, the cream will get runny; if they are cold, they will crumble. Bonus points are given for a choice of teas - say, English breakfast and Darjeeling and Earl Grey - and an assortment of scones - say, plain, with raisins and with cherries. (The word "scone," incidentally, rhymes with "prawn," not with "bone.") The customer splits the scone, loads up each half with clotted cream and adds jam, usually strawberry or black currant. Here arises a perfect expression of the rivalry between Devon and Cornwall, each of which considers its clotted cream utterly matchless. In Cornwall, the jam goes on first, with the cream on top; in Devon, the cream is first, like butter, and the jam second. So which is best, Cornish cream or Devonshire cream? Isabella Beeton, the Fannie Farmer of Britain, used the terms clotted cream and Devonshire cream interchangeably, which ought to settle the issue. But I was constantly reminded in Cornwall that "Cornish clotted cream" is registered with the European Union as a Protected Designation of Origin, while "Devonshire clotted cream" is not. Neither Betsey nor I is an habitual drinker of tea, at least at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when cream teas are meant to be consumed. (This might be a good time to point out that contrary to widespread American belief, "afternoon tea," whether a West Country cream tea or the more formal ritual at the Ritz in London, is not "high tea." High tea is a heartier, working-class meal usually served about 6 p.m.) This time, we yielded to temptation and stopped at the Primrose Cottage, a thatched tearoom, painted buttercup yellow, in the dreamy Devon village of Lustleigh. It looked as if it must be inhabited by dainty mice wearing pinafores, but in fact it is the province of Caroline Baker, 35, a microbiologist, and her husband, Simon, 38, who moved there from Bristol in search of a more serene life. "I was doing stem-cell work," she said. "I was stressed out." She bakes scones every day as well as enough cakes to fill a glass-fronted case. Her superb scones, light and easily split, never visit a microwave. Her jams and clotted cream are local. The sumptuous cream, a great mound of it from Higher Murchington Farm on Dartmoor, formed stiff peaks like a meringue when I dropped a dollop onto a scone. Apart from its cooked, slightly nutty taste, what sets clotted cream apart from other creams is its high butterfat content, which often reaches 63 percent. British single cream is 20 percent butterfat, American table cream 25 percent, American whipping cream 35 percent and British double cream 48 percent. A bacterial culture ferments and thickens sour cream, which ends with 18 percent butterfat; French creme fraiche, similarly made, has 35 percent. Everything depends on the cows. Harold Dunn, who owns a dairy farm near Whiddon Down, in Devon, puts his 120 Holstein-Friesians, a breed that originated in Germany, into the barn only for the worst days of winter. Usually they come indoors on Boxing Day, Dec. 26, and go out on Feb. 10. "The cream tastes better when they are out in the fresh air, even when it's cold, and eating the grass, even when it's pretty puny," the pink-cheeked Dunn said. "They love it. If I don't let them out, they shout." Friesians produce more milk than the Channel Island breeds, with a bit less butterfat, and Dunn swears by them. He calls each of his cows by name. He scratched Emily's back as he explained his methods to me. Dunn Farms clotted cream is extremely smooth, because it goes into the cartons still hot from the cooker. After chilling, a crust forms on the top and stays there, which customers describe as "the cream of the cream." George Trenouth, the owner of Trevose Farm in western Cornwall, a few hundred yards from the Atlantic surf, told me he used "exactly the same process as my gran." The farm has been in his family since 1890. His 32 cows, almost all Jerseys, graze on grass enriched by minerals deposited by sea mists, and the cream has a special tang. "In theory, you ought to be able to make clotted cream anywhere," Trenouth said. "They've tried pilot schemes in several other parts of the country, but they didn't work. The cream didn't taste quite right. Don't know why; maybe the weather and soil have something to do with it." At 75, Trenouth still works eight- and nine-hour days, wearing an old flat-topped checked cap as he lugs heavy stainless-steel milk pails, with his border collie, Jazz, at his heels. His son, Richard, tends to the farm's herb and vegetable crops, but he is not so interested in clotted cream. "Once my days are finished," the farmer said, "my cream business will be finished, too," which is a shame, since I tasted no more unctuous, no more brightly flavored clotted cream anywhere in my wanderings. Ken Iosso -----Original Message----- From: Tom Clark [mailto:tclark@mac.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 12:52 PM To: Detonating in a Ten Ton Truck Subject: Re: scones on 7/15/03 9:52 AM, Glen Uber at apostrophe@cruxofthebiscuit.com wrote: > Caroline earnestly scribbled: > >> Ah, now I'm reminded of Beavertails. A warm, yummy treat during >> Ottawa's deep freeze winters. I prefer the classic cinnamon and >> sugar. > > Does anyone want to touch this one? Tom? I am just reminded of the opening montage of "The Kids In The Hall", when Mark McKinney is riding past a "Beaver" gas station and just gives a knowing grin. - -t "sugar yes, cinnamon no" c ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V12 #272 ********************************