It’s Hump Day (“Ημέρα Καμπούρας” in Greek), May 10, 2023, and possibly the worst food day of the year: National Liver and Onions Day!!! Sadly, my father loved this odious dish, so my mother made it upon occasion, stinking up the whole house. Have a plate!
It’s also Clean Up Your Room Day, National Lipid Day, World Lupus Day, and Golden Spike Day (Promontory, Utah). As Wikipedia describes:
The golden spike (also known as The Last Spike) is the ceremonial 17.6-karat gold final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento and the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory
. . . The golden spike was made of 17.6-karat (73%) copper-alloyed gold, and weighed 14.03 troy ounces (436 g). It was dropped into a pre-drilled hole in the laurel ceremonial last tie, and gently tapped into place with a silver ceremonial spike maul. The spike was engraved on all four sides:
Here’s the original golden spike, now on display at Stanford University:
Here’s a photo of the ceremony, with the caption from Wikipedia:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the May 10 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Well, of course the Bigget Nooz is that Trump got his first conviction, perhaps the first of several, even though it was in a civil lawsuit. A jury of nine in New York found him more likely than not to have sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in Bergdorf Goodman’s Department store three decades ago. The formal charges were battery and defamation, and that’s what he’s guilty of. The fine was $5 million: chump change to the man.
The federal jury of six men and three women took only three hours before returning a verdict. They also held Mr. Trump, 76, liable for defaming Ms. Carroll when he posted a statement on his Truth Social website in October, calling her case “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”
Although more than a dozen women have accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct over the years, Ms. Carroll’s case is the first claim to be successfully tested before a jury.
The jury determined that Carroll had proven Mr. Trump sexually abused her, but they rejected the accusation that she had been raped. Sexual abuse is defined in New York as subjecting someone to sexual contact without their consent.
The jury awarded Ms. Carroll, 79, a total of $5 million in damages.
The jury’s unanimous verdict came in Federal District Court in lower Manhattan. Its findings are civil, not criminal, meaning Mr. Trump has not been convicted of any crime and faces no prison time.
Jury also found that Mr. Carroll proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Ms.Carroll was injured as a result of Trump’s publication of his denial of her accusations on his Truth Social account in October 2022.
The jury determined that Ms. Carroll had proved, by clear and convincing evidence, that Mr. Trump knew his statement was false when he said her accusation was a hoax, a legal standard known as “actual malice.”
Of course the Orange Man counterattacked:
On Truth Social, Trump continued his attacks, focusing on Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. He wrote: “What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be, speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the U.S. for me to get a fair ‘trial.’”
The jury didn’t find him culpable for rape, but did for sexual abuse. The big question now is whether this will materially affect his chances of being reelected as President next year. Let’s see what the next round of polls say, but remember that he has four other investigations going against him, and in those cases the charges will be criminal. Do they have special cells for Presidents that will also house their Secret Service agents?
*How long will it take before people accept the most sensible and research-inspiring definition of biological sex, one based on differences in gamete size? Over at his Substack site, “Reality’s Last Stand,” Colin Wright takes on several misguided anthropologists and biologists in his piece “Gametes are not an ‘arbitrary definition’ of biological sex.” The denial of this definition (by far the most inclusive and enlightening conception of “the sexes”), is of course ideologically motivated, though it’s detractors never tell us how many sexes there really are, much less give us their own definition of sex.
Wright goes after the Scientific-American op-ed of Agustin Fuentes, a confused NYT editorial by Jennifer Finney Boylan, a tweet from Holly Dunsworth accusing those of us who accept the sexual binary of being “a$$holes”, and, finally, the repeated and confused arguments by P. Z. Myers who argues that a gametic criterion for defining and distinguishing two sexes is made up, wrong, and confected to replace a chromosomal definition.
The cherry on top of all this virtue signaling and intellectual seppuku in the name of appeasing gender ideologues is a post by biologist PZ Myers on his blog Pharyngula titled “Let’s pretend humans are single-celled organisms.” In this post, PZ claims that sex being “defined by the size of your gametes” is “a strange new dogma” that is “stupid” and “arbitrary.” He says that this gametic definition is being used “to replace the Y chromosome excuse but “all the failings of any attempt to reduce a complex biological process to a single phrase.”
To call Myer’s framing “wrong” would be a gross understatement.
For one, the idea that males and females are defined by the size of their gametes is far from new. It dates back to the mid-19th century, when scientists first began to unravel the technical complexities of sexual reproduction involving sperm and ova. Furthermore, the gamete size definition is far from arbitrary; it reflects two fundamentally distinct reproductive strategies with enormous downstream consequences for the evolution of bodies, behavior, and physiology. If, as the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky once observed, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution,” it may also be said that nothing—or at least very little—about animals makes sense except in the light of anisogamy (sexual reproduction involving gametes of two different sizes).
Secondly, PZ’s claim that the focus on gametes represents an abandonment of appealing to chromosomes as a way of rooting sex in something binary is not just incorrect, but underscores PZ’s ignorance about the fundamental and universal definition of males and females.
Lastly, I want to highlight a common fallacy deployed by people like PZ Myers and Agustin Fuentes, which is to falsely equate what people are with who they are. Fuentes, in his essay in Scientific American, argued that “Gametes and gamete production physiology, by themselves, are only a part of the entirety of human lives.” However, no one has ever claimed that gametes represent “the entirety of human lives,” only that they define whether someone is male or female. PZ commits the same fallacy in the title of his blog post, “Let’s pretend humans are single-celled organisms.” Who has ever claimed that? To my knowledge, no one. .
*Look around yourself next time you’re on a bus, subway, or train, and see that more than half the people are fiddling with their phones. What I didn’t know is that kids appear to do it in class, too (we banned them when I taught, but that was 7 years ago.) The WaPo describes the problem in an article called “Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough.”
“We basically said, ‘This has got to stop,’” said Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli. “We’ve got academic issues that are not going to be fixed … if our students continue to sit on their phones.”
Most school systems already had cellphone bans in 2020, according to federal data, but the pandemic brought more urgency to places with lenient rules or lax enforcement. Some invested in ways to lock up phones away during school hours. Others forced students to keep them hidden away — with strict penalties for violations.
Here’s a lame excuse:
Parents have been split on the issue, with many critics insisting their children need phones in case of an emergency.
Their phone are there, just not in their hands. And of course the teachers have phones! They’re sneaky, some of these students:
“We’re not trying to infringe on anybody’s freedom, but we need to have full attention in the classroom,” said Nancy J. Hines, superintendent in the Penn Hills School District, in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.
. . . Hoping to switch the focus from scrolling to learning, the district tried a ban last year in its middle school. Homeroom teachers collected phones every morning and locked them in zippered storage cases. Students picked up their cellphones before heading home.
This year, they went a step further, expanding to high school. There, students slip their phones into locking Yondr pouches (about $16 each) that they carry with them all day and that they open by tapping it against a magnetic device as they leave.
The experience has not been perfect. Some students gamed the system by putting an old cellphone in the pouch and hiding their current device. But it generally has gone well, she said. “Do we have 100 percent compliance?” she said. “No, but the majority of our teachers would say that it is much better. There are fewer distractions.
I agree. The very least a student should do in class is to at least pretend to pay attention to what the teacher is saying.
*There’s are two unusual solutions to the looming debt crisis, but at least one sounds plenty weird. (Biden met with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy yesterday, but little came of it.) One of them is the Big Trillion Dollar Coin:
For years, debt limit skeptics have argued that the United States can get around the cap on how much it can borrow by minting a large-denomination coin, depositing it in the government’s account at the Federal Reserve. Officials could then use the resulting money to pay the country’s bills. The maneuver would exploit a quirk in U.S. law, which gives the Treasury secretary wide discretion when it comes to minting platinum coins.
But there have always been challenges with the idea: Treasury has expressed little appetite. It is unclear whether the Fed would take the coin. It just sounds unconventional to the point of absurdity.
lt sure does. A coin that says “One Trillion Dollars” on it? But here’s the other:
. . . some are arguing for a fancier-sounding alternative: premium bonds.
The government typically funds itself by issuing debt in the form of financial securities called bonds and bills. They are worth a set amount after a fixed period of time — for example, $1,000 in 10 years — and they pay “coupons” twice a year in between. Typically, those coupon rates are set near market interest rates.
But in the premium bond idea, the government would renew old, expiring bonds at higher coupon rates. Doing so would not technically add to the nation’s debt — if the government previously had a 10-year bond worth $1,000 outstanding, it would still have a 10-year bond worth $1,000 outstanding. But investors would pay more to hold a bond that pays $7 a year than one that pays $3.50, so promising a higher interest rate would allow Treasury to raise more money.
Now this is above my pay grade, and the NYT says it may not work, either, even though it’s supported by the likes of Matthew Yglesias, Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine, and Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman:
But even some proponents of premium bonds acknowledge that it could face legal challenges or damage the United States’ reputation in the eyes of investors. Plus, their design and issuance would have to happen fast.
Here’s a poll; please answer!
Loading ...*From the AP, a weird story from Germany:
German police say a 51-year-old man who was left tied up in the woods when a sex game went awry had a lucky escape after a cyclist and a hunter heard his screams for help.
Police said the man was discovered fully dressed but firmly bound with ropes and a pantyhose over his head atop a deer-hunting platform near the town of Bueckburg late Wednesday.
In a statement Friday, police said the man appeared to have been tied up by a woman he met online. After she had done so, the woman received a phone call and fled the woods suddenly, leaving the man behind in a helpless state.
“The 51-year-old told officers that that he had a box cutter on him ‘for such situations’ but seemed to have underestimated the (woman’s) bondage skills because he was unable to reach the knife,” police said.
The man was unharmed and refused to provide information about the woman’s identity. Police have opened an investigation of her on suspicion of failure to render assistance and possible deprivation of liberty.
He had a BOXCUTTER ON HIM FOR “SUCH SITUATIONS”? What kind of fetish is this?
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili knows what her job is:
Hili: What are these birds doing?A: They are catching insects.Hili: A strange job.
Hili: Co te ptaki robią?Ja: Łapią owady.Hili: Dziwne zajęcie.
********************
From Not Another Science Cat Page:
From Merilee:
From Nicole:
From Masih, the Iranian government pretends that they didn’t shoot protestors in the eyes. This woman demonstrates that yes, she lost an eye:
They shot them in the eyes, and now they mock them. The Islamic Republic shot and blinded many young Iranian protesters. Government officials have now installed billboards in Tehran to say that they are not blind, but lying. Protesters sat in front of the cameras and showed their… pic.twitter.com/FzU0GpCS1y
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) May 8, 2023
From cesar: an amazing photo-and-video thread of a turf war between barn owls and jackdaws. Be sure to read all the tweets:
1/5 One for animal behaviourists. About 10 years ago I placed a Barn owl nest box in this barn and almost immediately a pair of jackdaws moved in and made it their home raising numerous broods over the years until 2022. In 2022 a pair of Barn Owls evicted the jackdaws and pic.twitter.com/RUptQgZu82
— WeeMan (@AntrimLens) May 2, 2023
From Sci Am editor Laura Helmuth, who apparently anticipates the criticism she got (read the comments if you want), but conflates criticism of the magazine’s increasing politicization with “hate” and “conspiracy” (who’s conspiring?):
You may be noticing more conspiratorial & hateful content on here (including in the replies to this tweet, I'm guessing) and less of the interesting stuff you came here for. This is a good time to subscribe to the publications you value. https://t.co/xQu3qoyy8I
— Laura Helmuth (@laurahelmuth) May 8, 2023
Here’s more evidence for evolution from Dorsa Amir (there’s more in her thread), and I didn’t know this one. I apparently don’t have this muscle.
Put your hand flat on a surface and touch your pinky to your thumb. Do you see a raised band in your wrist? That there’s a vestigial muscle called the palmaris longus. It used to help you move around the trees. About 14% of us don't even have this muscle anymore. (2/8) pic.twitter.com/ZF3Ta91IGy
— Dorsa Amir (@DorsaAmir) January 15, 2019
From the Auschwitz Memorial, an entire family exterminated:
10 May 1906 | A Czech Jewish woman, Helena Ružková, was born.
She was deported from #Theresienstadt Ghetto to #Auschwtiz on 6 September 1943 with her husband Vilém and their daughter Hilda. None of them survived. pic.twitter.com/umVy1ydaoS
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) May 10, 2023
Tweets from Professor Cobb, who’s now in Texas, risking his life for science. First a groaner, but you’ll have to read the thread to hear the whole joke:
An Irish friend has sent me a joke:
A Dublin man sees a sign outside a Kerry farmhouse:
'Talking Dog For Sale'… He rings the bell, the owner appears and tells him the dog can be viewed in the back gardenThe man sees a nice looking Black Labrador Retriever sitting there
— Giles MacDonogh (@GilesMacDonogh) March 30, 2023
More funny indexing:
All you need to know is that the index was written by O’Neill’s estranged wife, Rachel Deverall. Delicious. pic.twitter.com/Thvy0syx88
— Lev Parikian (@LevParikian) March 30, 2023
Crikey!
The Earl of Minto has been appointed as a Business Minister
His full name is Gilbert Timothy George Lariston Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) March 27, 2023
Pharyngula is far more distasteful that liver and onions, which is actually rather yummy…
I like liver & onions, too, but usually order it only in a diner rather than go through the hassle of cooking it at home. Even better is chicken liver dusted in flour and sautéed with mushrooms and onions and smothered in a sour cream sauce.
And, hey, chopped liver ain’t just chopped liver either, especially when prepared with just the right amount of schmaltz — the poor man’s foie gras.
Fried chicken livers (no gizzards!), liver pates made with pork, chicken, duck and goose livers I enjoy. But I just can’t stomach beef liver, especially the classic liver & onions dish.
True story. As a young boy one evening at dinner my father forced me to eat some liver and onions. Everyone else was done and gone, but I was still stubbornly sitting at the table refusing to eat it. He threatened. I explained to him that if I ate it I’d throw up. He threatened more. I ate it. I threw up. And then I got in trouble for throwing up!
It was at that tender age that I learned TANJ, years before reading any Niven.
Exact same thing happened to me, but at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco; I was 7 or 8. I refused to eat snow peas (don’t know why, I love them now) dad “made” me eat one, I told him I’d throw up, he replied, that’s ridiculous. So I ate one and threw up; parents were pissed and they sent me out to the car without my fortune cookie. TANJ indeed!
Funny now, but traumatic when it happened!
Ditto here with cooked peas at a restaurant. I warned my parents, I ate, I threw up. My gracious folks never made that demand again!
I find it very intriguing that 3 WEIT readers had this same experience. It must be fairly common. Hmmm. I do know that none of my close friends ever did it, and back when I’d tell the story they all laughed like I was crazy. I think they laughed because it happened in a restaurant. Back then, restaurants were very special occasions, so it was irreverent comedy in my case. Who knows. I bet there is a google rabbit hole re. vomiting at the table. Not ready for the dive at this point. 🙂
I am (obviously) not a biologist, but I have been raising animals most of my adult life.
Could those who allege that gametes are not definitive of sex give us an example of mammalian reproduction that involves something other than gametes?
Just asking.
L
Good for him. A gentleman should never
kissget tied up and tell.“… many critics insisting their children need phones in case of an emergency.”
“Emergencies” are jobs for adults.
I deleted a whole paragraph to write that.
A pity that these kids know nothing of the freedom of being miles from home, hours at a time, on a bicycle, in the woods, on the lake, either alone or with friends that one can see . . . and with no mother or father to be heard (in case of emergencies).
Yeah, and we wonder why kids these days are so delicate and entitled: Helicopter parenting. I wonder why that became a “thing”…I’m sure there’s a good book out there that explains it. I’m not a parent, so have no idea.
I think this parenting style originated with perceived risk of reproductive failure. Many of us have fewer kids now and have them later in life, and live farther away from family and old friends, compared to boomers and previous generations. An evolutionary biologist would say that more investment in each offspring (and more worry about the success and safety of each offspring) makes sense in that circumstance.
I think it spread in part by efforts at shaming. My kids did wander the woods etc. and more than once a busybody neighbour scolded me for leaving my kids at risk of abuse. Made me wonder who he thought might abuse them.
Evolutionary forces don’t work with that kind of nuance (perceived risk of reproductive failure), on the time scale you cite (a couple decades?). Evolutionarily speaking, the phenomenon of “glass children” or anything culturally happening at this juncture in time is a nothing and has no bearing on evolutionary reality. Even if this were going on for 1000 years, it still wouldn’t be of evolutionary value.
This is a cultural issue. Not that this fact elucidates or solves any problems.
Hah! My father loved calves liver and onions and so did my wife’s mother. So, both my wife and I (quite independently, of course) were poisoned on occasion as children. My wife tells me she tried to spit it out and hide it in a napkin.
Will we default? I voted No, simply because “Don’t know/no reply” would have been too easy and “no reply” is a form of reply. I sure hope I’m right but I’d give No a Bayesian prior of about 60%. The number of morons in the House of Representatives lies at the heart of my uncertainty.
At least one of the HoR morons got arrested today- George Santos. How much you want to bet that McCarthy et al. still won’t kick him out of his seat? After all, look who their leader is. The GOP is OK with criminals nowadays, strange how times have changed.
I also voted “No”…he should cite the 14th Amendment and simply state the fact that defaulting on our debt is forbidden by the Constitution. Then let SCOTUS decide, but in the meantime, the bills will be paid. If SCOTUS says “no” and we default, it will be their fault, and I doubt Roberts, heading the most unpopular and corrupt SCOTUS in recent history will want that blame.
On this day:
28 BC – A sunspot is observed by Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China.
1768 – Rioting occurs in London after John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III.
1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America. The legislation leads to the Boston Tea Party.
1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
1837 – Panic of 1837: New York City banks suspend the payment of specie, triggering a national banking crisis and an economic depression whose severity was not surpassed until the Great Depression.
1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut.
1869 – The First transcontinental railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory with the golden spike.
1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
1908 – Mother’s Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
1916 – Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.
1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed first Director of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and remains so until his death in 1972. [Apologies to our host for that spoiler!]
1933 – Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
1940 – World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. On the same day, Germany invades France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.[34] Meanwhile, the United Kingdom occupies Iceland.
1941 – World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
1941 – World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.
1967 – The Northrop M2-F2 crashes on landing, becoming the inspiration for the novel Cyborg and TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.
1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder.
1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president.
2013 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
Births:
1697 – Jean-Marie Leclair, French violinist and composer (d. 1764)
1838 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865).
1899 – Fred Astaire, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987).
1901 – Hildrus Poindexter, American bacteriologist (d. 1987).
1902 – David O. Selznick, American director and producer (d. 1965).
1909 – Maybelle Carter, American autoharp player (d. 1978).
1920 – Bert Weedon, English guitarist (d. 2012). [The first British guitarist to have a hit record in the UK Singles Chart, in 1959, and his best-selling tutorial guides, Play in a Day, were a major influence on many leading British musicians, such as Eric Clapton, Brian May and Paul McCartney.]
1946 – Donovan, Scottish singer-songwriter.
1955 – Mark David Chapman, American murderer.
1957 – Sid Vicious, English singer and bass player (d. 1979).
1963 – Debbie Wiseman, English composer and conductor.
1968 – Al Murray, English comedian and television host.
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye:
1787 – William Watson, English physician, physicist, and botanist (b. 1715). [His early work was in botany and he helped to introduce the work of Carolus Linnaeus into England.]
1818 – Paul Revere, American engraver and soldier (b. 1735).
1863 – Stonewall Jackson, American general (b. 1824).
1977 – Joan Crawford, American actress (year of birth disputed).
1994 – John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (b. 1942).
1999 – Shel Silverstein, American poet, author, and illustrator (b.1930).
2018 – David Goodall, Australian botanist and ecologist (b. 1914). [Influential in the early development of statistical methods in plant communities, he worked as researcher and professor in England, Australia, Ghana and the United States. He was editor-in-chief of the 30-volume Ecosystems of the World series of books. Known as Australia’s oldest working scientist, and still editing ecology papers at age 103, Goodall was a long-time advocate of voluntary euthanasia legalisation and ended his own life in Switzerland via physician-assisted suicide aged 104.]
“They say you should never speak ill of the dead, only good. Joan Crawford is dead? Good.”
— Bette Davis, Joan Crawford’s longtime bête noire
I think it more appropriate to refer to Stonewall Jackson as a Confederate general, not as an American general. He was never a general in the United States army. He considered himself a citizen of the Confederate States of America when the Confederate government made him a general. Likewise, most Confederate generals, including Robert E. Lee, were never generals in the United States army. So, Wikipedia has it wrong. If you would argue that America is not synonymous with the United States of America then you would have to refer to every general in all countries in North and South America as an American general.
Yes I agree that is a seriously misleading error. It would make foreigners think that the military leadership of the Confederacy was composed of senior officers of the United States Army who both deserted and turned traitor.
And no, a Canadian or a Brazilian could never be described as an American general. Wikipedia just has it wrong.
It is strange to see such polarized opinions about liver and onions. There are other dishes where we fairly wonder why some like, or are ok with, while others decidedly do not. Like anchovies. Or fish.
I do like l. and o., but can’t stand anchovies although I’ve sincerely tried for the sake of a friendship.
Tongue was a common meat when I was a kid, although it looked unlovely when whole at the butcher’s. Trotters were OK, and can rise to an art form with the right chef. If you can source them, lamb’s kidneys are the best. Devilled on toast or in a steak and kidney pudding, just lovely. Heart—beef— is very rich and has an odd texture. I have had my share and more of ‘lights’ in haggis, but never sweetbreads (thymus or pancreas), brains or ‘prairie oysters.’ And I draw the line at tripe!
In truth I get to eat meat once a week if I’m lucky, since my wife is vegetarian. But needs must, and I’ll try most things.
Tongue (“lengua”) is still an available option at good taquerias. I love having it in a burrito. Some taquerias also offer tripe, but I haven’t tried it yet. I had lamb’s kidneys in France and found them delicious! I had sheep’s brain Pâté in Turkey and found it bland. Liver is also a big deal in Turkey and I’ve enjoyed it there fried and cooked. I’ve tried sweetbreads only a couple times but would love to have more.
I can understand why. I remember as a kid I would come home and the waft from the kitchen would make me salivate. With great dismay, I would find out it was liver and onions. Years later I would have the same elation crash down with the wife’s attempts.
My wife then discovered the liver had been overcooked and only needs a very light touch of the frying pan. Now I don’t mind liver and onions (with bacon of course).
I saw the Pharyngula post, and considered commenting to argue against it. However I decided it wasn’t worth the effort, as usually there are too many ad hominem responses. I’ll wait for a topic that I have more of a vested interest in.
I have wonderful memories of a vast plate of beef liver and onions at a roadside restaurant while travelling through CA in 1995, possibly with brussels sprouts… (sorry Jerry).
PZ Myers “It’s embarrassing that there are actual scientists, biologists even, who dismiss all the complexity of post-zygotic development to shrink people down to nothing more than their gametes.”
Hey PZ, are humans quadrapeds?
PZ: People are more than the sum of their limbs you fascist!!!!
Acute accents on the Greek, not grave accents: Ημέρα καμπούρας (I only know this because I’m studying Greek at the moment).
Now I see that it’s wordpress that’s changing the accents >:-|
I wonder if Leland Stanford did more manual labor than driving that spike.
That was the first Promontory Point photo I’ve seen showing the bottle. Reminds me of Soviet editing of photos.
“the first transcontinental railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento and the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory”
Here’s a great song about it: