Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in jccwhite's LiveJournal:

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Friday, May 14th, 2010
11:49 am	My island life As time passes, I find that I go to bed and get up earlier and earlier. Put another way, my personal time zone seems to be drifting eastward. Checking out the map, I'm currently operating on the appropriate time for the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, some French islands near Newfoundland. Nice place, but obviously cold and damp, so a better choice might be Fernando de Noronha, a tropical archipelago 200 miles off the coast of Brazil. Time to start practicing my Portuguese! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 19th, 2010
8:11 pm	Pasta by the season Pasta primavera for supper tonight. I'm pushing the season. very slightly, but it was a beautiful spring-like day in Boston. Soon I'll have to figure out what summer pasta is; I've got autumn, winter, and spring covered. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
9:59 am	Yes, we have no tomatoes There's a big tomato famine going on, at least in the Eastern U.S. There was a freeze in the tomato-growing area of Florida back in January, and now supplies are short, quality is bad, and prices have more than doubled. Who knew that all our tomatoes came from Florida at this time of year? Other veggies come from all over Central and even South America (my farm stand posts the source along with the price). The good news is that a new crop will be on the shelves next month, so I guess we'll get by 'til then. (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
5:13 pm	The View From My Window The View From My Window Originally uploaded by jccwhite. There must have been at least a hundred people skating on Spy Pond today. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
10:26 am	Oops! Last month, when we voted in the Democratic primary, we thought we were voting for the next Senator from Massachusetts. Big mistake; we were voting for the candidate to be the next Senator from Massachusetts, not the same thing at all. It turned out that Coakley didn't campaign until it was too late, and when she did she came across as a bloodless technocrat, running against a faux populist with a pickup truck. My guess now is that Capuano would have been way better against Brown. He has a genuine populist streak, he has some passion, and you'd like to have a beer with him. I'm not saying that there wasn't a lot of dissatisfaction out there, but I'm guessing now that Capuano could have made the difference between winning and losing. But what do I know? I've lived in five different communities in Massachusetts, and every one of them voted at least two-to-one for Coakley yesterday. I feel like the Bubble Boy, totally out of touch. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, January 18th, 2010
7:29 am	Memories of My Father Nut bowl Originally uploaded by jccwhite. I just came across this little bowl. It was made by my father, who died more than 30 years ago. I intend to put it into regular use; it will remind me of him, every time I use it. Paper Welder Originally uploaded by jccwhite. I also found this gizmo. It crimps a few sheets of paper together, in lieu of a staple or a paper clip. I always admired it when I visited my father's office as a little kid, and it still works perfectly. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
5:08 pm	Pasta inferno Pasta inferno Originally uploaded by jccwhite. I posted a picture of "Pasta autunno" a couple of months ago. debkakes suggested that I lose the Brussels sprouts from that dish and use winter squash instead. Voila! Braised Hubbard squash, with some pesto and some sun-dried tomatoes. Tasted way better than I had hoped for, actually. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
4:07 pm	TSA Alert TSA Alert Originally uploaded by jccwhite. The obvious answer to terrorists carrying explosives in their underwear. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 18th, 2009
10:47 am	Choices Health care reform today stands at a crossroads. One path leads to widespread disease, poverty, and death. The other, to pestilence, need, and despair. Let us pray that Congress has the wisdom to choose correctly. Adapted from Woody Allen. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
7:42 am	In case you didn't notice The earliest sunset of the year occurred a few days ago. Yay! - later sunsets (by a few seconds per day right now) henceforth. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
10:47 am	I went ahead and voted for Martha Coakley And I, for one, welcome our new Senatorial overlord overlady. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 4th, 2009
11:34 am	Primary time is coming Massachusetts has primary elections on Tuesday. The Republicans get to pick between a nobody and a clown, and the Democrats will choose Ted Kennedy's successor. The Dem candidates are essentially indistinguishable on their policy positions, so the choice has to be made on the basis of probable effectiveness, or personality, or whatever. We have: Martha Coakley - a little too cool and reserved, but the frontrunner, seems well-organized. Michael Capuano - a little too warm and irate, but the one I'd most like to have a beer with. Alan Khazei - a little too nerdy and unknown, but got the Globe's endorsement. Stephen Pagliuca - quite a bit too annoying and boardroomy, and makes way too many robocalls. I'll probably go for Coakley; she seemed to be in control of the debates even though she didn't make a lot of noise, plus the Senate Old Boys Club could use another girl. But I've still got another 4 days to change my mind. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 30th, 2009
7:05 pm	Eating choices From an article in the NY Times, by the sister of a vegan: “I like being told what to eat,” she said. “It’s like wearing a uniform. The less choice you have the easier it is. Today there are too many choices of everything. If you rule out food groups, it makes it more manageable. And you lose weight and do something good for the planet.” Seems to me that has something to do with my not-eating-my-fellow-airbreathers diet. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
9:00 am	In which I earn a geek merit badge Hackintosh Originally uploaded by jccwhite. Microcenter was selling HP 1000 netbooks for $200, and I couldn't resist. With the help of The Google and a lot of fiddly software tweaks, it's now running Mac OS X 10.6. In fact that's what I'm typing on right now. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
5:16 am	Pasta autunno Pasta autunno Originally uploaded by jccwhite. It seems natural to have a Fall version of pasta primavera, so this is my attempt. Brussel sprouts, mushrooms, mild red pepper, a little bit of smoked salmon that needed to be used, and Asiago cheese. Very tasty. Incidentally, we passed within a few miles of Asiago on the big bike trip. Fortunately, we didn't go there; that would have required some serious climbing. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
2:17 am	The Fugawis do Venice Our bikes Originally uploaded by jccwhite. The Fugawi Bike Club is a loosely organized collection of superannuated bicyclists from the Boston area. Last week, we did a bicycle tour of the Veneto, the province of Italy which includes Venice. We covered almost 200 miles in six days of riding, and had no incidents until the very end of the last day, when one rider rode across a low curb at a shallow angle and did a faceplant into the roadside shrubbery. She was shaken but OK. Biking in Italian traffic was a pleasure. I never felt threatened by passing cars, as I sometimes do in the US. The drivers are used to sharing the road with bikes, and they seem to have no problem with yielding the right of way when it's appropriate. Oh yeah, there was one time when one of us got kind of edged into the guardrail by a passing truck, at walking speed, but that can be regarded as a "failure to communicate." Click here to see an exposition of our tour. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
10:33 am	Bohemienne Bohemienne Originally uploaded by jccwhite. From time to time I make something with eggplant, but I'm too often disappointed with the result. This dish, from the Boston Globe, is the exception. Very simple (eggplant, tomato, onion, a couple of herbs, cook for quite a while), great to spread on a piece of sourdough toast. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, September 11th, 2009
4:04 pm	It's never too late to apologize, but this is really stretching it 55 years after he committed suicide as a result of being sentenced to chemical castration for being gay, the British government has officially apologized to Alan Turing. The man literally changed the course of WWII in favor of the Allies, and he was a (arguably the) founder of computer science. His is the one name which anyone who knows anything about the theory of computing is guaranteed to know. But he was homosexual, so the government effectively hounded him to death. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
4:31 pm	Norrie in Frog Pond Norrie in Frog Pond Originally uploaded by jccwhite. Boston Common isn't just for grownups. (Photo by Isobel, color adjustment by me). (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
1:56 am	Semi-home-grown Pasta with fresh topping Originally uploaded by jccwhite. The penne pasta, the mozzarella, and the olive oil came from Trader Joe's, but the tomatoes and the basil came from containers on my apartment's patio. The only thing that's cooked is the pasta, so it's a nice quick hot-weather supper. (Comment on this)