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  • Debate Thought

    I should have made snacks last night. The wine was good, but I needed something to eat. If only I had some popcorn…

    The spin has begun from what happened last night between Harris and Trump. Consensus is that Harris won the debate, and I have to agree with that. I won’t waste your time, as there are plenty of news outlets you can go to find out why and how this happened. I do find it odd that you would come here first, though I am flattered, as I do not believe that I am a solid or creditable news source.

    The one thing that I noticed last night with the spinning and analyst, and even in the paper this morning, is that the criticism, for both Harris and Trump, concerns that they didn’t go into detail about their plans. They didn’t give enough information.

    I’m sorry, but that’s not what televised political debates are about, and it has never been about information. Look, the first one, Nixon and Kennedy, what does everyone remember about it? Nixon sweating under the lights and Kennedy looking calm and in control. Does anyone remember the tax policy they discussed?

    What do people remember about these debates? Reagan’s “Four Years” line, or the “Not exploiting his opponents youth and inexperience.” How about, “You’re no Jack Kennedy,” or Bush looking at his watch, Gore loudly sighing, binders full of woman… I think you get the point.

    These debates are about creating and capturing emotional reactions. Logic has no place here; it’s window dressing. Besides, everyone is sitting at home with a smartphone in their hand, so when they want to find something out, like is that how tariffs work, or how does the child tax credit get paid for, they just look it up. Why would a candidate waste valuable screen time, getting all wonky on policy, when they can work to get voters comfortable with the idea of them being President? I believe Trump and Harris are of this thought.

    So please, political talking heads and hacks, please drop this crap about not learning about policy in these debates. You should know better.

  • Debate Night in America

    Are you throwing a Debate Night Party?

    I bought a bottle of wine which I plan on splitting with my wife, as we watch the debate and yell at our TV. But not too loud, as our kid will be sleeping in the next room.

    I thought about buying snack foods that are orange, but that seemed a little too silly.

    No, I will celebrate Debate Night, the way my forefather’s celebrated all the way back in 1960; slightly tipsy.

    To be honest, not looking forward to the debate. I didn’t watch the last one between Trump and Biden, as something told me it would be a train wreck. I mean, it was a train wreck, but not the way I thought it would be. There isn’t anything that will happen tonight that will make me change how I am planning on voting. I guess something could happen, it’s not impossible, but not probable either. No, Trump will try to act all normal, but will slip into “Trump” mode and say some weird shit. Harris has a bunch of canned one-liners, some focus group zingers, that she’ll try to land, but will come across as wooden. You know, like Chris Christie’s Donald Duck line…

    Sadly, these things, these “debates,” aren’t informative, just entertainment. It’s a tightrope walk, and we are only here to see who will fall off. There are such things as debate contests, which have rules, and allow people to stake positions, and have the other person question them, and rebuttals, and so forth. I mean, if we really wanted to know where these candidates stand, we could ask them to, you know, really debate.

    But we don’t.

    We like this form of competition. It gives both sides the ability to claim that they won. We’ll get a bunch of memes out of tonight. I will have Twitter on and follow the outcry/outrage, or general hilarity of people commenting on what is happening.

    It does make me wonder if any of this really matters?

  • Making Gumbo (assuming that you’ve made it before)

    So… I made gumbo over the weekend. It turned out good, but still not what I was aiming for.

    See, I have a friend who used to live in New Orleans, and he gave me his gumbo recipe a couple of years ago. Not that I do it often, but every now and then, maybe once a year if that, I will get in my head that I really need to eat gumbo. Just happens. Anyway, somewhere back in June, I knew I wanted gumbo when Fall rolls around. This past weekend it was a little rainy and cool, and that makes it soup season in my book.

    Now, over this past Summer, on our travels, I happened to come in contact with a couple of restaurants that had gumbo on the menu. Some of the gumbos were great, some were okay, but none of them were bad. What they all had in common was that they were more stew than soup, multiple proteins (chicken, sausage, shrimp, crawfish… take your pick) and the gumbo’s color was brown.

    When it came to making my friend’s recipe, I did notice one ingredient that stood out to me; a can of diced tomatoes. Not only were tomatoes in his gumbo, but you also added to juice from the can. To me that said this was the reason my gumbo was going to turn out orange. Unless, I took that roux down to a deep brown color.

    That was my plan. It was also my plan to take lots of pictures and put together an awesome food blog post. What I found out was that taking pictures while cooking was not my thing. As in, I just kept cooking and forgot to take pictures. BUT, I did get a couple when it came to making the roux. See:

    Though I didn’t get a final picture of it, I did get the roux down to a dark brown color without ruining it. But as I continued to make the gumbo, and added those tomatoes, what I ended up getting was an orange gumbo, and to be honest, one that tasted more tomato like than what I had over the Summer. That’s not to say the recipe is bad or wrong, because this recipe is solid and tasted good. It just wasn’t what I was aiming for.

    And here’s my thought; I’m just going to have to make gumbo again. Probably in a month, as my family isn’t as hip on testing out gumbo recipes as I am. When I do take another crack at it, I have to say no tomatoes, I want to add okra (I think that will help thicken it) and add shrimp as I only used chicken and sausage this time. I think my roux was fine, no need to mess with that.

    See you in October.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Gumbo, Cowboys, and Beer

    (I saw my problems, and I’ll see the light…)

    So, it doesn’t feel 100% like Autumn outside, but I’m not letting that stop me from cooking like it’s Fall. This is the season of baking, soups and stews. And I intend to go after my white whale, “Gumbo.” I have tried for a couple of years now to get it down, and even have one stellar recipe from a friend who used to live down in New Orleans. I have made gumbo with okra, with shrimp, crayfish, sausage, chicken, and everything else you can throw in. Yet, it still hasn’t come out the way I am looking for. The issue is me, I am the problem, and the real problem is that my roux never gets dark enough. I have got it down to sandy brown, an awful tan, maybe even khaki – all of them incorrect. No, I have to get my roux down to an intense chocolate color – dark brown. I have thought about this for awhile now, done research, and this is the weekend that I get my gumbo recipe down pat. I try to remember to take pictures.

    The Dallas Cowboys play on Sunday. This is the year. I have said that for twenty years, but this time I mean it. They will go 12-5, yet again. I will find a way to watch every game here in New York City, all the while I will get wall to wall coverage of the shitty Giants and somehow even shittier J-E-T-S. JETS! JETS! JETS!

    And I have bought beer, so I can sit on the couch all day on Sunday and watch football. I normally don’t do this, but something in my, most likely my beer belly, thought that I should do it. I have to agree.

  • Short Story Review: “The Narayans” by Akhil Sharma

    (The short story “The Narayans” by Akhil Sharma appeared in the August 26th, 2024 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Illustration by Sargam Gupta

    Gossipy neighbors; We all have them. They seem to live on the edges of most stories, novels, and sitcoms. Sometimes it’s not the neighbors, but the community as a whole that is a gossip. People will talk, and make conclusions, and jump to conclusions. It never works out well. And the neighbors do talk in Akhil Sharma’s “The Narayans,” but the clichés and tropes that usually develop and deftly avoided in this work.

    First of all, Akhil Sharma makes an ingenious choice with the narrative of this story, which sets an impactful tone. The narrator of this story is third person limited, and is also a member of the community from which the story takes place. (Maybe it’s first person limited…) It makes the narrative of the story feel as if it’s second hand, possibly unreliable. Any insight from this story comes from the narrator, and not from any of the other characters.

    The narrator tells us about the Narayan family, who live in an Indian immigrant community in Edison, New Jersey. Mr. Narayan is an unpleasant man, while his wife is overly generous. They have two children, an older son, Vikas, and a younger daughter, Madhu, whom Mr. Narayan is overly protective of. We also meet the neighbors, Dr. Shukla and her daughter, Nehali, who is the same age as Madhu, fourteen. Soon it is discovered that Madhu is pregnant, and at first the rumor is that Vikas is the father. Then the rumor is that Mr. Narayan is the father. Madhu is then sent to India, while Vikas is attacked at school by a pack of white girls. The community turns on the Narayans, wherein Mr. Narayan also returns to India, and receives what the narrator implies is his comeuppance. Then time goes by, and the community changes as a new wave of immigrants from India arrive. Soon notions and stigmas also begin to soften, and Mrs. Narayan is no longer judged in the same way. This leads to the climax of the story, and Madhu’s return to this community in New Jersey.

    This story was a kick to my gut. It completely created a sympathy in me for Madhu, and to be empathetic to her situation. But it also left me feeling conflicted with how the community reacted to this situation. How this community blamed, possibly correctly, one person, while ignoring the victims. The swift kick this story gave me had the effect of making me question my need to assign blame first, and not sympathize and help those that have been hurt. How that lack of sympathy and empathy can add to a person’s trauma.

    As with all stories that deeply affect me, I am having trouble putting my finger on all the aspects and details in this story that give it such a full breath, and life. But, that’s also the sign of a very good writer, and Sharma is that. And still I was left wondering if everything I was told, was in fact, true. That isn’t a knock against this story, just an acknowledgment that the theme and tone were spot on for this piece.