DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The Chronicle’s Food section ran an unusual story today about a magic peanut elixir. (I didn’t even know peanuts needed elixing.)

I had to try it. I rushed to San Francisco, parked on Divisadero just south of Haight, and looked around wildly for teeming crowds of high-energy peanut-milk faithful, surrounded by cast-off wheelchairs and crutches, radiant with positive vibes in spite of their ratty alternative clothing (this is Haight St. after all). I found no such throng. I couldn’t even find the cafe; I had to pull out my laptop to look up the address. I was right across the street from the place.

I walked inside. There were two other people there — the owners. Given today’s press, I thought sure the place would be filled. If you can’t find a miracle on Haight Street, or at least a dime bag, where can you?

But one wall inside the cafe did indeed feature a dozen written testimonials to the miracles of peanut milk. The praise is honest and heartfelt.

I don’t have AIDS, baldness, or rickets — not yet, anyway — so I wasn’t sure whether I’d notice any immediate benefit. But I ordered up a tall peanut smoothie (peanut milk, apples, bananas) and awaited my personal miracle. It arrived with a little paper cap on the straw.

Amy Moon said her peanut smoothie was “delicious.” I can’t say I agree. I’ve had some nasty smoothies — all from my own kitchen, like spinach/kale, which in what would have been a true medical miracle very nearly brought my stomach out my mouth — and this compares favorably. I finished it. I’m not sure I’d want another one, though. I can’t say “I wouldn’t cross the street for one of those,” because I already had. You get the idea.

And then I drove straight to Amoeba Records and bought a CD.

Hey, wait a second — I got out of Amoeba with only one CD?! I’m cured! I’m cured!

The Environmental Working Group released a report entitled Rocket Fuel Contamination in California Milk.

Milk from cows raised in some parts of California may expose infants and children to more of a toxic rocket fuel chemical than is considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…
In the first study to look for perchlorate in California supermarket milk, EWG found perchlorate in almost every sample tested — 31 out of 32 samples purchased from grocery stores in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

So in addition to cookies and peanut butter sandwiches, milk now also goes great with lettuce.

Check out Greg Gaylord’s “snare gallery” of 33 different handmade snare drums. Half of the pages contain source info on the wood, tuning characteristics, and a player’s report on resonance, sensitivity, and frequency response.

Excerpts from the report on the Platymiscum Yucatanum (Granadillo) snare:

Plenty of high crack, supported with strong mid and low frequencies. Has a full, rich, warm presence. A drier sounding drum with a more defined fundamental in the sweetspot (center) of the drum… The Granadillo went to a really low head tension, just above “no tension,” and went as tight as Maple before choking… Has a more “forgiving,” consistent cross stick sound with a half-inch movement in stick location… “The Maple sounds like a snare drum, the Granadillo sounds like an instrument.”

OK, so where do I sign?

While you’re at it, put me down for a Cherry drum too. (“Rim shots are loud and cutting with a ‘bite your head off’ attitude about them.” Who wouldn’t want that?)

Bim forwarded a great story about the legal battle stemming from the so-called Energy Crisis of 2000-2001: Small-time officials take lead in Enron fight (mirror)

Enron has been accused of manipulating or “gaming” the energy market, by withholding supply in order to increase demand and raise prices. The fallout was enormous: western states signed energy contracts providing ridiculously inflated prices; rolling blackouts killed power across California with little warning; Gray Davis was replaced as governor by an action-movie actor whose name escapes me.

Today’s story, in brief, is that a small utility company in Washington acquired and transcribed hundreds of hours of audio tape featuring Enron employees bragging about manipulating the market. It’s precisely the sort of evidence that Enron officials must have prayed would never come to light.

The transcriptions were explosive. Enron traders joked about lying in their negotiations with Snohomish and others. They joked about stealing money from “Grandma Millie” in California, and they joked that President Bush would not stop them by imposing price caps because of his close relationship with Enron chief executive Ken Lay.
”This is more than a smoking gun,” says Russ Campbell, another Nevada Power lawyer. “It’s an audiotape of the gun being fired, the bullet hitting the victim, and the murderer standing over the victim laughing.”

According to the Chronicle’s wine writer,

The tongue only has four taste zones — the tip is sensitive to sweetness, the back portion responds to bitterness, the forward edges detect saltiness and the back edges react to sourness.

And so bad science is propagated yet again. Here’s the truth about the taste map.

The article contains this related and interesting bit about the impact of the shape of a wineglass on the drinker’s perception of flavor and aroma:

At a tasting that Riedel conducted, he actually proved that the thick oakiness of a Chardonnay tasted leaner in a Montrachet glass and a Zinfandel lost much of its sweet cherried fruitiness in a goblet meant for Bordeaux.

I used to see those Riedel glasses at wineries all the time. I always wondered if they were for real, or just a marketing scam aimed at people with more money than sense. I guess it’s time to start buying Riedel stemware now.