News You Can Bruise for 2003 September 1

Mon Sep 01 2003 10:44: Sumana gave me an old book, The History Of Popular Culture Since 1815. It's one of those old Books Of Concern, or maybe it's a textbook (it has a UIUC bookstore sticker on it). There are a bunch of interesting essays in it, such as one called "Gargantuan Victorian Meals" which lays out the menu for "twelve to fourteen persons":

• FIRST COURSE
  • Two Potages.
    • Good Woman's Soup, dite flamande, white and thick.
    • Soup a la beauveau, brown and clear.
  • Two Fishes.
    • Turbot with lobster sauce.
    • Slices of crimped salmon, boiled, with same sauce.
  • Two Removes.
    • Turkey a la perigeaux, puree of chestnut.
    • Leg of mutton roasted.
  • Six Entrees.
    • Cutlets of mutton braised with soubise suace.
    • Salmi of young partridges a la Espagnole.
    • Vol a vent of salt fish a la maitre d'hotel.
    • Casserole of rice with puree of game.
    • Saute of fillets of fowl a la lucullus, with truffles.
    • Fillets of young rabbits a la orlies, white sharp sauce.
• SECOND COURSE
  • Two Roasts.
    • Three partridges roasted.
    • Three woodcocks.
  • Six Entrements.
    • Spinach with consomme, garnished with fried bread.
    • Whole truffles with champaign [sic].
    • Jelly of marasquino.
    • Buisson of gateau a la polonaise.
    • Charlotte of apples with apricot.
  • Two Removes of the Roast.
    • Biscuit a la creme.
    • Fondus.

More gems from the past coming soon. (What is a "remove"?)

Mon Sep 01 2003 12:56 PST Pictures from EuroPython: Here they stand, 83 in number, your EuroPython/Belgium/Amsterdam pictures! My favorites:

• A good picture of PrustiTaina and Jarno, and Jarno plotting something in Amsterdam.
• My hotel room was about twice the size of my cubicle at work. At first I thought this was way too small, but over time I began to sympathize with my Belgian captors.
• My attempt at duplicating from memory the picture of Rachel by the Manikin Pis. Prusti took a picture of me attempting to duplicate Rachel's other picture from Brussels, the "scarfing down a waffle" picture", but I don't have it yet.
• For Danny, some surreptitiously-taken NTK T-shirt sightings: 1 2
• My attempt at nature photography: a spiderweb on a footbridge in Amsterdam.
• Signs: a dinosaur, the world's most confusing road sign, a woman who should just put the fish down, a great store name, and a liquid tot. (I hate to spoil this by telling you, but that last sign actually says "Liquidation Totale" and part of it is covered up by the graffitti-ridden corrogated metal anti-theft device.)
• Remember that one-inch square of text in Time magazine about the Dutch-designed urinal that had a fly painted on it to encourage good aim? Well, the urinals in the conference center in Charleroi had that fly.
• At around 2 AM on Belgian TV, they broadcast Missile Command-esque typing games. Why don't they just play the national anthem and call it a night?

Mon Sep 01 2003 14:10 The Spam Of Nations: Part IV:

Subject: Free PPV