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Middle Meme of July? Yes, I think so.
Jul. 23rd, 2023 06:34 pm12. What have you learned today?
I learned about molokhia, which is a green herb/plant used mostly in Middle Eastern cooking, but also in North Chinese cooking.
13. Do you prefer to be around introverted or extroverted people?
That's a weird choice. I tend to like both, and I am not really sure it breaks down all that accurately.
14. What simple pleasures did you enjoy this week?
Simple pleasures... okay. I enjoyed the simple pleasure of using Meyer's Hand Soap -- I bought a five pack of different smelling ones a few months ago, and boy, the geranium is amazing! I also like their lemon verbena and their basil one. I have two more to discover, when these three run out. I think lavender (how can you lose?) and... gosh, I have no idea what the fifth scent was... ahh, having looked it up: I got a SIX pack, and the remaining scents to be tried are lavender, honeysuckle, and rosemary. I love the scent of rosemary, so that's good. In fact, one of my promises to myself when I moved from Chicago to California was that I would have either a garden with rosemary and lavender, or at least giant pots. And I do, on my balcony. Any other simple pleasures? Uh, reading is always a simple pleasure. Oooh -- I got a pedicure with my sister on Wednesday, and that was a simple pleasure (and cheaper than she thought it would be at our favorite place... she thought the prices had doubled, but in fact it cost less than I remember. She claims that for once we were not upsold.) It's been literal years since I was there.
15. Have you ever been somewhere where you didn’t speak the local language?
Most places I've traveled where the people didn't speak English either spoke French or Portuguese or Spanish or Italian, all of which I can manage (I mean, not really Italian, but if you squint sideways with it using your ears, it's SORT of like a mash-up of Spanish and French, so...) and the places where people spoke German and Swedish (that is, Germany and Sweden), most people also spoke English. The one exception was Poland. No English, nothing to help me out -- although this was in 1986, and it was still all basically Stalinist there (I was in Gdansk, a ferry ride away from Stockholm) (to see the Lenin Shipyards, birthplace of Solidarnosc, mainly, and also to lift the tattered remnants of the storied Iron Curtain)... so there were literally troops of Russian Komsomol scouts running around the streets (side by side with smaller determined troops of nuns, not running) and I was able to make out the following Russian words: "da", "nyet", "krasny", "iskra", "pravda", and "oktyabr". Okay, that's a lie. I did hear yes, no, and truth. The rest are just commie words I know how to say.
16. How often do you go grocery shopping?
Never! Ha ha, j/k. I essentially only shop online via Instacart, because I cannot carry anything while using my travelscoot. I online shop probably once a week-ish.
17. If you could go back and witness any historical event what would it be?
The first thing that came to mind was the Paris Commune, 1871. Anything else? Oooh, the Seneca Falls Convention. Those would be my top two.
18. Do you have any home exercise equipment?
I may have some handweights buried in my closet.
19. Have you ever seen a shooting star?
no, though I would love to see the Perseid shower...
20. What's the next DIY project you are going to do or want to do?
Um, none. That is not the sort of project to which I aspire. I am currently doing a 'project' if you can call it that, of re-recording the Federal Manuscript Census database I made for my (never completed) dissertation -- the 1870 (just a sampling) but all of the 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 of Caldwell Parish, Louisiana. This is just silly -- I don't think I have any intention of finishing writing my dissertation (I'm thirty years behind the secondary literature for one thing)... but when I was doing the listing of Black families in Evanston, Illinois from the MS Census of 1900 (for the mystery I may eventually start/continue... I wrote a chapter of it right before moving out here) I got re-fascinated by the amazing details of the manuscript Census, so...
21. Do you find it easy to make friends now?
No. I do think a lot of this is that it's really only easy to make friends if you are in a target rich environment, like high school, college, or grad school.
22. Have you ever studied abroad?
Yes, but I was crazy lucky because my dad had the faculty/staff discount at Northwestern, and NU's deal with the various universities they exchanged with was that the exchanging student (me) paid NU's fees... and for me, those fees were $1200/year. For living in Britain! Crazy! The French department was disgusted with me, and called me at midnight on the closing day of applications for their Sorbonne program. I was a French major, and they were PISSED that I only applied to the University of Sussex exchange. But my best friend lived just outside of Brighton and this was my chance to go live near a bunch of Brit revolutionary socialists, so fuck Paris. Was my thought.
I learned about molokhia, which is a green herb/plant used mostly in Middle Eastern cooking, but also in North Chinese cooking.
13. Do you prefer to be around introverted or extroverted people?
That's a weird choice. I tend to like both, and I am not really sure it breaks down all that accurately.
14. What simple pleasures did you enjoy this week?
Simple pleasures... okay. I enjoyed the simple pleasure of using Meyer's Hand Soap -- I bought a five pack of different smelling ones a few months ago, and boy, the geranium is amazing! I also like their lemon verbena and their basil one. I have two more to discover, when these three run out. I think lavender (how can you lose?) and... gosh, I have no idea what the fifth scent was... ahh, having looked it up: I got a SIX pack, and the remaining scents to be tried are lavender, honeysuckle, and rosemary. I love the scent of rosemary, so that's good. In fact, one of my promises to myself when I moved from Chicago to California was that I would have either a garden with rosemary and lavender, or at least giant pots. And I do, on my balcony. Any other simple pleasures? Uh, reading is always a simple pleasure. Oooh -- I got a pedicure with my sister on Wednesday, and that was a simple pleasure (and cheaper than she thought it would be at our favorite place... she thought the prices had doubled, but in fact it cost less than I remember. She claims that for once we were not upsold.) It's been literal years since I was there.
15. Have you ever been somewhere where you didn’t speak the local language?
Most places I've traveled where the people didn't speak English either spoke French or Portuguese or Spanish or Italian, all of which I can manage (I mean, not really Italian, but if you squint sideways with it using your ears, it's SORT of like a mash-up of Spanish and French, so...) and the places where people spoke German and Swedish (that is, Germany and Sweden), most people also spoke English. The one exception was Poland. No English, nothing to help me out -- although this was in 1986, and it was still all basically Stalinist there (I was in Gdansk, a ferry ride away from Stockholm) (to see the Lenin Shipyards, birthplace of Solidarnosc, mainly, and also to lift the tattered remnants of the storied Iron Curtain)... so there were literally troops of Russian Komsomol scouts running around the streets (side by side with smaller determined troops of nuns, not running) and I was able to make out the following Russian words: "da", "nyet", "krasny", "iskra", "pravda", and "oktyabr". Okay, that's a lie. I did hear yes, no, and truth. The rest are just commie words I know how to say.
16. How often do you go grocery shopping?
Never! Ha ha, j/k. I essentially only shop online via Instacart, because I cannot carry anything while using my travelscoot. I online shop probably once a week-ish.
17. If you could go back and witness any historical event what would it be?
The first thing that came to mind was the Paris Commune, 1871. Anything else? Oooh, the Seneca Falls Convention. Those would be my top two.
18. Do you have any home exercise equipment?
I may have some handweights buried in my closet.
19. Have you ever seen a shooting star?
no, though I would love to see the Perseid shower...
20. What's the next DIY project you are going to do or want to do?
Um, none. That is not the sort of project to which I aspire. I am currently doing a 'project' if you can call it that, of re-recording the Federal Manuscript Census database I made for my (never completed) dissertation -- the 1870 (just a sampling) but all of the 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 of Caldwell Parish, Louisiana. This is just silly -- I don't think I have any intention of finishing writing my dissertation (I'm thirty years behind the secondary literature for one thing)... but when I was doing the listing of Black families in Evanston, Illinois from the MS Census of 1900 (for the mystery I may eventually start/continue... I wrote a chapter of it right before moving out here) I got re-fascinated by the amazing details of the manuscript Census, so...
21. Do you find it easy to make friends now?
No. I do think a lot of this is that it's really only easy to make friends if you are in a target rich environment, like high school, college, or grad school.
22. Have you ever studied abroad?
Yes, but I was crazy lucky because my dad had the faculty/staff discount at Northwestern, and NU's deal with the various universities they exchanged with was that the exchanging student (me) paid NU's fees... and for me, those fees were $1200/year. For living in Britain! Crazy! The French department was disgusted with me, and called me at midnight on the closing day of applications for their Sorbonne program. I was a French major, and they were PISSED that I only applied to the University of Sussex exchange. But my best friend lived just outside of Brighton and this was my chance to go live near a bunch of Brit revolutionary socialists, so fuck Paris. Was my thought.