Food with a personality
Bookworm on Oct 20 2008 at 2:23 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
Today was the first day of my new project, which sees me working from 8-12 every morning for the indefinite future. Although I had some blogging withdrawal, it was actually quite a lovely experience — perhaps, in part, because I couldn’t check the news and my email, a fact that kept my tension level down. (I find the news lately somewhat upsetting.) My client is also a lovely human being, and made me feel so welcome.
At the end of this first morning’s work, my client took me to lunch at a local French restaurant. It’s this restaurant that gives rise to something funny. Since it’s French, it offered a cheese of the day, some sort of bleu cheese. I wouldn’t have noticed it but for the adjective the menu gave that cheese: unctuous. Does that mean anything to you? It sure doesn’t to me, other than giving me a good laugh.
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- C’est fou!
- The women in Obama’s life and their effect on his personality and politics
- Putting meaning into every lesson
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19 Responses to “Food with a personality”
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Sure: unctuous: rich, creamy. buttery. from L unguere, “to anoint.”
So, did you try it?
RE: “(I find the news lately somewhat upsetting.) ”
I’ve grown to appreciate bleu cheese, something I attribute to the dulling of the taste buds in the twilight years.
But unctuous? That must have been some mighty fine cheese.
And Helen, the smiley face?
Where is the appropriate expression of pacifist compassion?
Unless the upsetting news is this:
Somehow a smiley face seems, I don’t know, gauche.
“unctuous”
Charlie’s definition makes it sound good…I’d define it as “oily” – which doesn’t sound nearly as good. I suspect that his definition is the one to use for food, mine is the one used to describe a person…!
SueK,
I agree with you, though Charlie has the book definition right. When I hear the word I think about its application as an adjective about the Jesuits by the Franciscans – far too rich, oily, and fatty for its own good. Guess that is what I get for a Catholic school education. I’d have used a different term; perhaps buttery or creamy instead of a word that is commonly found referring to flunkies and brown-nosers.
And I don’t like the news either; the situation with Pakistan is spinning badly because of Obama’s phrasing about openly striking across the border (see Dr. Sanity for perception vs. reality in the Islamic world) and the situation in Iraq has hit more than a few bumps because of his piddling with the leaders. Obama’s campaign and his front runner status have already caused me to worry about my next deployment getting moved up.
And by the way – the longest and most manpower intensive campaign since 1988 after Iraq? You have any ideas? How about the Balkans (Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro)? Guess which party put us in there? One of the biggest problems the military has currently is the deployment tempo for division command groups – they have two in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and one in Kosovo. With only nine active and six complete reserve division commands, you can see where the problems could crop up (especially since a 12-month rotation includes six months of training and recovery time). One additional division headquarters and the manpower we’ve had on the ground in the Balkans since the mid 90′s would have meant six additional down months per soldier that has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. SIX MONTHS! And we still don’t have an exit strategy for Kosovo (1998-????) since the whole situation never had guidelines to start with.
Oh, well. I figure we’ll have at least one invasion of a sovereign nation (best guess – Colombia) to show that the O-man is at least as great of a leader as Kennedy. It won’t (quite) be the Bay of Pigs – but it will set regional politics back at least a half century or more. Oh- he won’t hit Venezuela (too much interest by the Chinese) and he won’t do Cuba (even the worst anti-Castroite admits they aren’t a real threat anymore and he likes socialism). Colombia has corruption, a border dispute with Venezuela, and exports drugs – who cares that they are starting to win their own little war if we’d just quit messing with them and keep Chavez out of it.
Anyhow, I figure if the O-man wins, I’ll be busy in my target language working for the Army.
Off to make dinner.
SSG Dave – “I’d rather have a warmonger in office than a peacenik; everyone is afraid to offend the hawk and tries to pluck the dove.”
“Somehow a smiley face seems, I don’t know, gauche” BrianE
Actually, it’s perfect: gauche means “left.”
>>“I’d rather have a warmonger in office than a peacenik; everyone is afraid to offend the hawk and tries to pluck the dove.”>>
Terrific! Where’d you find that gem???
That’s definitely a keeper.
By the way, the two in my family who are in the military plan on exiting as quickly as possible if Obama gets elected. Clinton was bad – but Obama…Phew.
I suspect the all volunteer armed forces will be in trouble. Cutting the military might not be a problem…keeping an adequate military might be.
SGT Dave:
Peering into my crystal ball, I see an executive order normalizing relations with Cuba. Of course this will be under the auspices of meeting our enemies with no preconditions. After all, the socialists have to hang together.
My crisis pick would be Israel, Iran, and the local proxies. I just don’t see Iran being allowed to become nuclear capable.
Going back to the cheese, an unctuous blue might be a double-cream blue, like Saint Agur.
I still want to know if she tried it.
The thing is that unctuous has had it’s meaning taken over by that metaphorical use.
Dammit. “its meaning”.
Has there ever been a so-called foreign policy “expert” with so many blunders to his name? Joe Gaffe Biden does it again. Repeated from BrianE #3:
>“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
A recent series of posts on the draft alerted me to the fact that a lot of our best posters here have significant military experience and expertise. And, hopefully, insight into current affairs.
What in the hell is going on with Biden? The best explanation from the civvie side is that all the candidates recently had a threat assessment meeting with knowledgable foreign policy experts. And that Biden just couldn’t keep his big mouth shut.
If any of you hear anything significant, it would be wonderful to know about it. I find the Biden gaffe to be alarming, and it’s frustrating to not know if he’s blurting information he shouldn’t be, or if he’s just off his Valium and was speaking, er, extemporaneously.
As far as a deliberate test for a novice president, my fear would be China-Tiawan, or Russia-Ukraine. I can’t see Biden’s comments referring to anything else as far as a deliberately triggered crisis that an Obama administration would take seriously enough to cause intervention.
Russia invading any other country than Ukraine; Pakistan descending into total chaos; North Korean blackmail; serious Kashmir confrontation; a flareup in the unending Iran/Syria/Hezbollah/Hamas war against Israel… none of these seem likely to cause anything more than diplomatic “expressions of concern” from an Obama administration. An Iranian nuclear bomb – or a set of them – might be worthy of triggering intervention, but Biden had such a level of certainty with his maximum six-month window, which seems a touch to short to conclusively relate to a nuclear Iran. Besides, if Israel is to survive a nuclear attack, Biden and Obama have both made it absolutely clear that Israel is on her own.
Okay, oily sounds just right. I can see now where it’s a cheese descriptor. I, however, always think of Uriah Heep, in David Copperfield. To me, it’s a people adjective, not a food adjective.
You might also find this interesting – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing_of_the_Sick (extreme unction)
-Jonathan
SueK,
I don’t recall who said it – it is one of my large gathering of quotes that I’ve used over the years for motivation.
As to your family members in the military – please ask them to hold out for the four years it will take. I served six of my eight active under Clinton and regret getting out for the guard. Not for the reason one might think – I’ve run into several of my former peer group and we all agree on the same thing: the best and brightest of our generation took the money and ran. The Army is just now recovering in the middle ranks (Staff Sergeant, Sergeant First Class, senior Captains, Majors, and Lieutenant Colonels) from the exodus in 96-99 under Clinton.
I sometimes sit and wonder how many young men and women in uniform could have had a better chance if I’d stayed in and trained them (I was once a hard charging, tactical monster – 193rd Infantry Brigade (separate), Jungle Operations Training Center, National Training Center, Joint Readiness Training Center, and 10th Mountain Division). I was one of the best in my field; then I left. I bear some of that responsibility (right or wrong) for each of those soldiers that fell. I could have shouldered some of the burden, taught a few more lessons, mentored a few more soldiers, and maybe – maybe – made the difference.
Let them know it looks bleak; but in that is the greatest challenge to their sense of Duty. We don’t just serve when it is easy; I made that mistake.
I’ll leave off with another of my favorites.
SSG Dave – “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died; rather we should thank G-d Almighty that such men lived.” – George S. Patton
SSG Dave…
I’m thinking that there may be harder choices to make. We may still need your skills. I’m very concerned about the future if Obama wins.
I can’t help but think that there may be a massive change and surprise, but I’m not really confident about it. I fear something wicked this way comes…
SueK,
I’m in until 2013 right now as a Guardsman; I’ll be eligible to retire from the reserve in 2011 and (hopefully) will have my full active retirement in 2016 or so. I’ve been to Iraq (OIF 3 ’05-’06) and was in Kosovo (KFOR 9 ’07-’08). I am waiting on orders to go back to Ft. Leavenworth with a group of quality people in keeping up the intelligence fight. I’ll be here for a while; chances are that in 2011 my division will be off to Iraq – I’ll head back with them and take care of my guys. I’ve not lost one in my two deployments. Fair means my people come home.
And yes, there is an ill wind blowing. Yet, here I will be, facing it and doing what I can to make it pass by without harm. I have a wife and children who need me to do my duty and keep them safe (along with everyone else). As I said, it is time for perseverance – despite our possible leadership.
SSG Dave – “All that good men need do for evil to triumph is… nothing.”
SGT Dave
Went through the school in March, 1975.
Small world.
I’ve been to Iraq (OIF 3 ‘05-’06) and was in Kosovo (KFOR 9 ‘07-’08)
*Gasp* You mean the dastardy Republicans had the nerve to draw troops from Afghanistan to both Iraq and Kosovo!!! How dare they.
When bad men combine, the good must associate; otherwise they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
—Edmund Burke,
They made Vietnam into a contemptible struggle for most of Americans and the world. Let us not see that in Iraq or Afghanistan. It isn’t pretty.
“‘He either fears his fate too much,
Or his dessert is small,
Who fears to put it to the touch,
And win or lose it all.’ – Montrose’s Toast
Let them know it looks bleak; but in that is the greatest challenge to their sense of Duty. We don’t just serve when it is easy; I made that mistake.
There’s a very simple analogy for that. If we don’t kill and slaughter civilians just because our enemies do it, then why should we act like traitorous Democrats just because they would do the same to us? Either we have better and higher standards than them or we don’t. Either we serve the US Constitution or we don’t.
The Democrat Presidents have already tried their best to promote peace time generals into flag rank and made the message clear that other military members should get out cause their kinds of warmongering ideas aren’t welcome in the new administration. They are trying to purge the US military of dissenters just like they tried to purge the civilian sphere of Iraqi war supporters with the chicken hawk accusation. One of the great things about Petraeus and his COIN staff is that they are now getting the power to decide who gets promoted or not. They are promoting warriors to general and flag rank, not peace time generals that prefer a readiness report over actual combat experience (Colin Powell).
The Left’s primary response to dissent is to get rid of the dissenters. That’s their SOP.