Friday Four

1. Out for dinner with the in-laws last week, my inquiry into the identity of the garnish on my plate -- which I tasted -- reminded me of an article I ran across some time ago at Slate, on "Kale of Duty: Why I Choose to Eat Nothing but Kale, Ever, for the Rest of my Life".

DAY 2: Many foods give up their charms all too easily. Not so of kale. In order to coax from it even the most basic edibility, kale must actually be massaged. Massaging breaks down the tough kale leaves and tempers their off-putting taste and texture (i.e. their "kaleness"). Most chefs massage their kale for 5 to 10 minutes in a mixing bowl. I went longer than that for my first kale salad -- an hour and a half total -- mostly because that's what I'd want if the kale were massaging me.

About to elaborate a bit, the waiter continued, "It's best eaten --"

"-- by somebody else." I couldn't resist interrupting him.

2. Taking heed of some good advice I recently passed along here on getting papers organized, I recently purchased a new shredder from Amazon. This thing is a beast compared to my old shredder, even when it was new. It shreds more at a time and faster. I have yet to jam it. It's reasonably-priced and fun to use. I may even find myself missing the backlog of papers I started working through Wednesday, after I finish -- probably this morning.

3. My daughter is a fan of The Octonauts, a children's cartoon series Wikipedia calls "reminiscent of Star Trek and Thunderbirds blended with Jacques Cousteau". During an episode I watched with her recently, some of the Octonauts went inside a whale shark to rescue a puffer fish (as well as to save the whale shark from the poisonous fish).

"Can people really go inside a whale shark?" Pumpkin asked.

"Not like that. The only way to end up inside a shark is to be eaten," I replied, chuckling.

"Are people poisonous?" she then asked.

"No. We just don't get into the water when sharks are around."

4. Although it was affected by the recent Napa Valley earthquake, the Quent Cordair art gallery is open for business:

Our artists need financial support as well during this time. The gallery's website at www.cordair.com remains *OPEN* for business. Most of the paintings, prints, and sculpture are undamaged and remain available for purchase - please consider supporting your favorite QCFA artist by making a purchase while the physical gallery remains closed for repair. If you can't afford to purchase art at this time, consider joining Club Cordair at http://cordair.com/wordpress/clubcordair for as low as $50 month --all monthly contributions into club accounts are available towards future purchases.

(HT: HBL)

-- CAV