Manic Bookstore Cafe

Home again indeed... We've been back in OH for 2 weeks, and it's dry. Brown lawns, yellowed corn stalks -- we're worried our new red maple, planted in May 2011, may not make it. The corn we buy at farmers' markets is still sweet and delicious, but the ears are not fully developed. Tomatoes are fewer, apples and peaches are harder to come by than out in PA. This weekend, Labor Day weekend, feels very quiet, in part because the humidity from Hurricane Isaac is rolling in. Despite the seeming end-of-summer lull in activities, we had a terrific dinner party last night, and I used some of the recipes from dinners we had in Philadelphia in July and August: the watermelon-feta-mint salad, the lemon-oregano tuna mousse. Of course, I had to purchase all the herbs I used at the store, because everything in our garden and our friends' gardens has dried up. Even though it's not asparagus season, I made a chilled asparagus soup that was quite delicious, and I shouldn...

My daughter recently posted a revised version of our second day in Hong Kong, now an entire month ago. Seems crazy that we could have been exploring Hong Kong, and then China, and experiencing the heat and humidity there, and now we're in Philadelphia for our traditionally hot and humid summer experience. It's good to be home. The rhythms of the farmers' market, biking through the city, seeing relatives and friends, cleaning and cooking, reading the newspaper and trying new recipes, staying busy enough that I never quite sit down to read a book and lose myself in it... In Philadelphia for such a short time this summer, we're hyper-aware of the need to take a big bite. And we've done well so far. Still on the list of things to do are a long bike ride through the city on a Sunday afternoon; visits to museums, especially the new Barnes and the renovated and reopened Rodin Museum, and with any luck a visit to the fantastic Mercer Museum in Doylestown. Plenty of w...

A pointy stick Zack found and was carrying in the Botanical  Gardens. Hong Kong Houses   This is a video of the loud noises the Siamang gibbons at the Botanical and Zoological Gardens make.         Today, after a fancy breakfast for "Golden Circle Members" at our hotel, we braved the stifling heat and went on a walk that took us around to the Western Market, which was unfortunately closed because it was on the early side of the morning. We passed Ginseng and Bird Nest Street. The street was lined with shops full of medicinal animal parts. Next stop, we walked along the Dried Sea Food Street, and you can only imaging how that smells! I was sad when I saw all the shark fins for sale. The smell, as you can imagine, was not a lovely one. The street was filled with nasty dried seafood smells. For sale in the shops were random dried seafood creatures that have a purpose most likely for cooking.     Next we walk...

After 3 weeks of traveling, we arrived home and began to get settled on Tuesday. Apparently I was missing the kitchen, even though it's been too hot to think about cooking. I planned one of our normal pasta salads to take to the pool for a picnic with our neighbors, and then I checked out Steve Poses' blog: http://athomebysteveposes.wordpress.com/recipes/ . He's the Philadelphia restauranteur behind the Frog/Commissary Cookbook (and those restaurants, which I know only from the cookbook) -- and *that* is where I found the recipe I have modified as "Angela's Best Cookies," a recipe that was actually requested for a recent school event. Anyway, I was intrigued by a salad recipe, and yes, I did modify it a bit,  but I found it to be very yummy and just the trick on a hot afternoon. Try it. Avocado and Black Bean Salad. http://athomebysteveposes.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/avocado-black-bean-salad-recipe/ I felt like I didn't want to waste the pulp -- the...

Louis Menand, The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University (New York: Norton and Company, 2010). This is a book of academic history and policy, with a decided private / Northeast bias. It treats the topics of General Education; the history of the Humanities and literary studies; “interdisciplinarity”; and the concept that “all professors think alike” [i.e. that faculty are overwhelmingly liberal politically; not a very interesting chapter]. Some of what Menand has to say about Gen Ed and the “humanities revolution” is not true at Ohio State (or, I suspect, other large state institutions). But this is a very smart book with good research and it raises interesting questions. I highlight some of them below. National Defense Education Act of 1958 led to direct federal subsidies of higher ed (rather than only subsidies via specific research contracts): NASA, NSF, NIH; but also targeted science and foreign languages as primary needs (pp. 66-6...

Hong Kong has been amazing, as is made obvious by the fact that Olivia hasn't had time to really blog about it. We've been sweating more than we thought possible, walking and hiking everywhere, taking all kinds of public and other transportation, even been out to the New Territories. But I won't spoil the surprise; we will all read about it from her point of view. The purpose of this blog for me (Angela) is not just travel -- though we have been doing plenty of that lately and will be travelling even more in future -- but also, of course, books and recipes. So I wanted to write a little about a novel I've just read called The Weird Sisters , by Eleanor Brown. This is an airport novel that I picked up on my way to Ukraine last month (figuring I might get stuck somewhere along the way and need something to do), but instead of reading it I simply brought the book with me through Istanbul to Alushta, Crimea, and back again. On the plane on the way to Hong Kong I decided ...

Olivia has been dying to blog ... but I'm staying in control. Not much she can do about it -- it's my computer, and I'm her mom. I will check her posts and make sure she's at least using proper grammar and punctuation ... though I won't necessarily censor her! The name of our JOINT blog is "Manic Bookstore Cafe," after my long-cherished idea to open a bookstore/cafe where sometimes there will be LOTS of yummy baked goods (scones, muffins, cookies, pie, cake...) -- the result of a manic baking phase -- and sometimes ... there will be nothing. Nada. Go next door if you're hungry. The bookstore/cafe may never happen -- do I really want to get into retail? and if Olivia goes on to other, more interesting occupations, why would I want to do it by myself? But at least we'll have this joint project for now ... until she gets old enough to have her own computer with unlimited access and her own blog. So that's the story of the blog's name. I...