truffles

PA140039 - small
Originally uploaded by Cos.

Cos wrote a really lovely email about these truffles. Here's his and Franca's description of their scent:

. . . they have a rather odd perfume. Initial guesses always liken it to gas…but after sniffing it for a bit longer you get all sorts of images popping in to mind. Franca says it smells like the forest in autumn, with ochre coloured leaves falling and a brisk wind smarting your cheeks (her words…but in italian). It is a rather heady perfume that is very, very light but extremely pervasive. I had it on my work desk and you couldn’t smell it directly, but if you didn’t concentrate on the smell (like when you’re working on the computer) it is so strong that it makes you dizzy. It is a difficult perfume to describe. It isn’t spicy, nor musky, nor is it a peppery smell, neither damp/mould nor mushroomy smell,….but at the same time it is all of those. I had it in my pocket last night when I went by the baker, it was wrapped in paper and tied up in a plastic bag, and after a little while the people waiting began to stir a bit than someone said ‘…does anyone else smell truffle’

Lovely!

ironic democracy

While Australian troops are still in Iraq supporting the movement towards 'democracy' - here, back in Australia, legislation is being proposed which will make dissent illegal, which will allow the government to detain people without charge or trial, which will inflict prison sentences upon those who reveal that they have been held, without charge and without trial, to their employers or their families.

It's ludicrous. It's my worst nightmare. I currently enjoy living in a country where the law is explicit, where I know what I can and can't do. I really, REALLY like this. It enables me to act sensibly and in accord with those around me. However, if the law is changed - if I can be held under suspicion, without reason, and I'm not allowed to tell anyone what is going on - for me this is chaos. This is hell. I suppose the legislators would argue that I am not likely to fall under suspicion, or get picked up, or do the wrong thing. But if you don't know for sure what the wrong thing is, how can you avoid it?

Where do my sympathies lie? With those who ask questions, with those who upset the status quo, with those who push boundaries, testing what is really necessary. I guess it's not going to kill me if I end up being held without charge for a fortnight, or having my movements restricted for a year. It's just not that likely that it would happen to me. It's the friggin' principle of the thing that freaks me out - we're in Iraq to establish justice (apparently), and yet we're allowing injustice, fear and secrecy to blossom here. It disgusts me.

cook books

cook books
Originally uploaded by lynn.

Julie Powell, the author of 'Julie & Julia', wrote a blog while she was working on the cook-your-way-through-'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' project, see here: The Julie/Julia Project

Apparently it all started the day she came home from the gynecologist and cooked Potage Parmentier for tea. I cooked that the other day and it hasn't had any odd effects yet, which might be a good thing, or a bad thing. Depending on what those effects might've been. Bit like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory really, I could've ended up going to Antartica as a cleaner or something. Probably not.