Feb. 8, 2010
"I think I could kiss him."

Tom Benson, about Sean Payton, Feb. 7, 2010.

Feb. 7, 2010
Red, red wine
It's up to you
All I can do, I've done
But memories won't go
No, memories won't go

"Red, Red Wine," by Neil Diamond, on "Just For You," 1968.

Feb. 6, 2010
I like to go out – which includes traveling; I can’t write when I travel. I like to talk. I like to listen. I like to look and to watch. Maybe I have an Attention Surplus disorder. The easiest thing in the world for me is to pay attention.

Susan Sontag, as quoted in “The Writer’s Desk,” 1996.

Feb. 5, 2010
Senses never forget.

Sapporo Beer ad, 2003.

Feb. 4, 2010
"Sure, sure I heard of grits. I just actually never seen a grit before."

Joe Pesci as Vinny Gambini in "My Cousin Vinny," 1992.

Feb. 3, 2010
Not long into it, he’d cut the lardo into thin slices and, with a startling flourish of intimacy, laid them individually on our tongues, whispering that we needed to let the fat melt in our mouths to appreciate its intensity...No one that evening had knowingly eaten pure fat before (“At the restaurant, I tell the waiters to call it prosciutto bianco”), and by the time Mario had persuaded us to a third helping everyone’s heart was racing.

"Heat," by Bill Buford, 2006.

Feb. 2, 2010
"I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter."

Bill Murray as Phil in "Groundhog Day," 1993.

Feb. 1, 2010
"LeMay said if we lost the war that we would have all been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals.
LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side has lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?"

Robert McNamara in "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara," released 2004, directed by Errol Morris.

Jan. 31, 2010
You are a stranger here but once.

Schaefer Beer, 1842 - present.

Jan. 30 2010
I have mine,
and she has hers,
and he has his.
Do you have yours?

"Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla," music by Bob Dorough, lyrics by Kathy Mandary, "Schoolhouse Rocks!" 1977.

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Jan. 30 2010 I have mine, and she has hers, and he has his. Do you have yours? "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla," music by Bob Dorough, lyrics by Kathy Mandary, "Schoolhouse Rocks!" 1977.

Jan. 26, 2010
Like a gifted plastic surgeon, a seasoned restorer has many options these days and a host of materials and instruments at his disposal, even acupuncture needles. They are not used as they would be in Asian medicine, to puncture a surface, or to sew a canvas, but rather are applied from behind to keep a tear flat.

"Questions over Fixing Torn Picasso," by Carol Vogel, "The New York Times," Jan. 25, 2010.

 

Jan. 25, 2010
Was in the spring, one summer day
Just when she left me, she's gone to stay
But now she's gone, and I don't worry
Oh I'm sitting on top of the world.

"Sittin' on Top of the World," originally written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon, first recorded in 1930 by the Mississippi Sheiks. Above lyrics from Jack White's version, recorded 2003.

 

Jan. 24, 2010
A souffle, quickly described, is a sauce containing a flavoring or puree into which stiffly beaten egg whites are incorporated. It is turned into a mold and baked in the oven until it puffs up and the top browns.

Julia Child, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," 1961.

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Jan. 18, 2010 You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk? Shug to Celie in “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker, 1982

Jan. 23, 2010
Bare branches of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow.

- Nelda Hartmann, "January Morn"

 

Jan. 22, 2010
“I realized that people were willing to wait patiently just for a bowl of ramen,” he said.

Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant ramen, 1910-2007, as quoted in the New York Times, Jan. 9, 2007.

Jan. 21, 2010
A little water is a sea to an ant.

Afghan proverb.

Jan. 20, 2010
"Make it work."

Tim Gunn, mentor, "Project Runway," 2004 to present.

Jan. 19, 2010
"This is James Truman," said the voice, "calling from Conde Nast. I'm looking for a new editor for Gourmet. I wonder if you would be interested in meeting me for tea?"

"Yes," I said, "I would be interested." And from deep inside me six voices all echoed yes, yes, yes as we prepared to join forces and move on.

Ruth Reichl, "Garlic and Sapphires," 2005.

Jan. 18, 2010
You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?

Shug to Celie in “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker, 1982

Jan. 17, 2010
"We're all mad here."

The Cheshire Cat in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," by Lewis Carroll, 1885.

Jan. 16, 2010
"My experience is not atypical of a lot of families who are touched by migration. My father came first, and then we followed."

Edwidge Danticat, speaking on "Democracy Now," Oct. 5, 2007, about her memoir, "Brother, I'm Dying."

Jan. 15, 2010

Here comes pride up the back stretch.

"The Race Is On," sung by George Jones, written by Don Rollins, 1965.

Jan. 14, 2010

“I wish I could lie down beside her and die, too.”

John Adams, Oct. 26, 1818, two days before Abigail died of typhoid, as quoted in “John Adams,” by David McCullough, 2001

Jan. 13, 2010

Recipe for Death in the Afternoon
"Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly."

by Ernest Hemingway, in "So Red the Nose, or, Breath in the Afternoon," 1935

Jan. 12, 2010
Stand ye Guamanians, for your country

And sing her praise from shore to shore

"Guam Hymn," the island's anthem, by Ramon Sablan, Guam's first Chamorro doctor, 1902-1970

Jan. 11, 2010
departure
but also a hopeful future
a green orange

No. 799, by Matsuo Basho, @1644 to 1694

Jan. 10, 2010

If you tasted it, it would first taste bitter,
then briny, then surely burn your tongue.
It is like what we imagine knowledge to be:
dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free,
drawn from the cold hard mouth
of the world, derived from the rocky breasts
forever, flowing and drawn, and since
our knowledge is historical, flowing, and flown.

From “At the Fishhouses,” by Elizabeth Bishop, in "The Complete Poems 1927-1979."

Jan. 9, 2010

I am a fervent admirer of still lifes.

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog," by Muriel Barbery, 2006

Jan. 8, 2010

"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."

Homer Simpson, "The Simpsons," 1989 to present.

Jan. 7, 2010
If I didn’t know the ending of a story, I wouldn’t begin it.


Katherine Anne Porter, as quoted in “The Writer’s Desk,” 1996

Jan. 6, 2010

I wanna watch the ocean bend,
The edges of the sun,then
I wanna get swallowed up
In an ocean of love.

"Ventura," by Lucinda Williams, on "World without Tears," 2003

Jan. 5, 2010
We all get mad. We all get late.

"Waiting for the Bus," by the Violent Femmes, off "Add It Up (1981-1993), 1993.

Jan. 4, 2010

"I clip their wings because most people don't want to buy a bird that might escape so that they have to sprout their own feathers in a flash and take off in hot pursuit. Most people couldn't be bothered, you see. People make odd birds; they don't fly much."

Stamos the Birdman to Polyxeni in "Birds without Wings," by Louis De Bernieres, 2004

Jan. 3, 2010
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s the same thing,” he said.

“Winnie-the-Pooh,” by A. A. Milne, 1926

Jan. 2, 2010
The main dishes were surrounded with smaller dishes of pickled watermelon rind, beets and cucumbers, and spiced peaches. The dozen or so apple and sweet potato pies she had made where stacked in tiers of three, and the caramel and jelly layer cakes placed next to them. Plates, forks, and white damask napkins and gallon jars of lemonade and iced tea were the last things to be unpacked.

"The Taste of Country Cooking," by Edna Lewis, 1976
For my sweet potato queen, Ruth, who turns 98 today.

Jan. 1, 2010
I wish you good friends that always treat you fair
Wanna wish you ribbons to tie around your hair

"I Wish You Well," Bill Withers, 1975.