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Chou farci
Posted Feb 2, 2012 at Middlebrau
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Catching up on the Newspapers
I sympathise very much with some of the ideas expressed by economist, author and Observer columnist Will Hutton in his recent article, "Words won't change capitalism. So be daring and do something". From the time the economic meltdown started, I've really been wondering, "Where, exactly, do we start again?" What... Continue reading
Posted Feb 2, 2012 at Middlebrau
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Blood, Bones & Butter
I've just finished reading Blood, Bones & Butter: The inadvertent education of a reluctant chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton. Wow, what a journey! People like Hamilton have sucked the marrow out of life, and I loved the transition from what seemed like a lost, misspent adolescence to success on her own... Continue reading
Posted Jan 31, 2012 at Middlebrau
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Quick Spotify FIP Playlists
Courtesy of LifeHacker, a headline that made my afternoon: Build Spotify Playlists from any Wikipedia Song List. Because I realised that someone finally had provided the functionality to automatically generate playlists from a list of songs, artist and title, on Spotify. I had a look at doing this when I... Continue reading
Posted Jan 13, 2012 at Middlebrau
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Reading
I sat last night trying to decide whether to read or to write a blog post, and reading won out. I've been on a bit of a reading kick since New Year (or really, since Christmas). Hoping to get through a few more titles than the 13 I knocked off... Continue reading
Posted Jan 10, 2012 at Middlebrau
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Barcelona
Posted Nov 30, 2011 at Middlebrau
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Reflecting on: Observer Food Monthly, 13 November...
Reflecting on: Observer Food Monthly, 13 November 2011, Saving Fitzbillies: Tim Hayward's Life-changing Year This is really a remarkable story of today's economy. An iconic but long-in-the-tooth institution - Fitzbillies, in Cambridge - goes into administration and is rescued out by a couple with vision and a sense that the... Continue reading
Posted Nov 23, 2011 at Middlebrau
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90 Minutes
These past few weeks I've been suffering from insomnia and what I think is an allergy to dust or mildew or something else that's in the air with the advent of autumn - the closing of the windows and the firing up of the central heating. The two combined to... Continue reading
Posted Nov 23, 2011 at Middlebrau
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When Did The GOP Lose Touch With Reality?
Reflecting on: New York Magazine, 20 November, 2011, When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality? by David Frum I thought this was a concise and insightful analysis of what's wrong with conservative USA today, through the eyes of a life-long conservative insider and W-Bush era White House speechwriter. One... Continue reading
Posted Nov 22, 2011 at Middlebrau
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Christmas Crack
I am having a bit of a session this evening on our Christmas Crack (7.0% abv). I am proud of this beer. We used to make our Christmas beer in the style of a Belgian brown ale, usually around 5.5% and with seasonal spicing (cardamom, coriander, orange peel, etc.). But... Continue reading
Posted Nov 19, 2011 at Middlebrau
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Decluttering
One of the difficulties of working a day job, running a family business and raising a family is that you never have time to declutter. Small jobs accumulate and never clear and you wind up, despite living fairly simply, living under with the scourge of clutter. Empty jars ("We'll use... Continue reading
Posted Nov 19, 2011 at Middlebrau
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Reading in the Dark
A good day is bracketed on both ends with reading. Our alarm goes off at 0700. If I am up any time before that, and I usually am, that time is mine, and it's for reading. My first daily stops are in three seasonal readings. Three books that have a... Continue reading
Posted Nov 17, 2011 at Middlebrau
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Going Back to Mac?
Reflecting on: New Yorker, 14 November 2011, The Tweaker, by Malcolm Gladwell Interesting article about Steve Jobs's perfectionist tendencies, drawing on Gladwell's reading of the new biography of Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Jobs as a "tweaker" - an improver of things that already work. Gladwell explores the concept of the... Continue reading
Posted Nov 16, 2011 at Middlebrau
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Blogging Again
After a gap of nearly eight years, I have decided to start blogging again. I gave up all those years ago under the sheer weight of family and professional commitments. I still have those commitments - all of them - but I feel a bit more in control of them... Continue reading
Posted Nov 16, 2011 at Middlebrau
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Mar 15, 2010
C'mon Randy... bolinhos de bacalhau are awesome. We spent our last few hours in Rio at a little watering hole, drinking chopps and emptying plates of bolinhos.
We have made bolinhos de bacalhau at home a few times (it's surprisingly hard to find in England - I usually source it from an Italian deli) and it's usually a struggle for the soaked, milk-warmed fish to last long enough to find its way into bolinhos. The kids adore it.
Reminds me I must see if I can find some for our Christmas Eve nibbles.
A Nation Comes To Its Senses
I have written about the dreaded bacalhau before and stay by what I said: in my opinion it's got to be one of the worst fish dishes ever concocted and to make matters worse, people pay a premium price for it . Even the Portuguese are coming to their sense: So as Christmas approaches, the rush is...
I came across this advert at Waterloo station last night. No words - just Obama standing in front of No. 10 Downing Street. Curious.
Global Branding
You have to love politics in Brazil, especially on the local level, at least when the politicians don't take themselvs too seriously. Off year elections in Brazil, such as the one taking place next month are nationwide contests for city council members and mayors. Iara, one of Mercia's cousins r...
An interesting possibility is that the administration might agree to set up a tariff-free quota for Brazil. Currently a fair bit of Brazilian ethanol gets into the US tax-free by trans-shipment via Caribbean nations.
The scary thing is that Brazil's cost base is quite low, while pressure on the price of corn runs the risk of driving the US cost of production so high that the arbitrage window opens and even taxed ethanol becomes economic in the US market. That certainly happened last summer when ethanol prices peaked over $5 - ethanol in Sao Paulo tends to run about $1.50 a gallon, and normally the price hovers just below the (Brazil + freight) price. An argument could be made that, rather than let such price pressure be put on corn it would be better to relieve the tariff and allow Brazilian ethanol to satisfy domestic demand.
There Go His Chances of Every Being Elected to Statewide Office Again
Jeb Bush in São Paulo today: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told Brazilian sugar and ethanol business leaders on Monday that the U.S. should eliminate its tax on ethanol imports from Brazil. "The U.S. should remove the tax on Brazil ethanol imports to really get the ethanol market moving," B...
I'm not sure he has a lot to worry about, Randy. US ethanol comes from corn, not sugar - the US cannot economically produce ethanol from sugar cane because US production costs are so much higher than in Brazil.
Also significant, Florida is a refined product importer, so keeping fuel prices down by lowering the tariff barrier probably makes more sense for the state than any other economic protection benefits from the tariff. Now, if he were running in Iowa!
It actually can't hurt in Florida either that he's in favour of supporting economic development in Latin America.
I saw Jeb speak at an event in Texas last month. What raised more hackles I think was his strong support of a drilling ban in Florida's territorial waters. He said the environment and tourism were far more important to Florida than spoiling the landscape with rigs and pollution (fair point). "200 miles off, drill away!", he said.
There Go His Chances of Every Being Elected to Statewide Office Again
Jeb Bush in São Paulo today: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told Brazilian sugar and ethanol business leaders on Monday that the U.S. should eliminate its tax on ethanol imports from Brazil. "The U.S. should remove the tax on Brazil ethanol imports to really get the ethanol market moving," B...
We took our honeymoon in Venice in February 2000. From the photos, you obviously noted the same thing - its nice when the city is not full of tourists.
Your comments on the market ring true for me as well. Why are markets like this so hard to find in the US / UK? We had a grand time at the markets in Barcelona. We're being "sold back" our farmers markets at a high price, when this should be the default.
Venice Photos
I finally got a photo album put together. Click here for some of my Venice photos.
>>He died on the steps of the nearby Hotel California as he tried to escape.
Someone forgot to tell him that you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Sorry.
Another Journalist Killed in Mexico
Mexico remains one of the most dangerous places to practice journalism in the Americas: Amado Ramirez, a reporter for top Mexican television news network Televisa, was killed Friday night by two gunmen waiting at his a car, police said. He died on the steps of the nearby Hotel California as he t...
Probably... heh.
You're Fired!
Donald Trump was on "The Situation Room" this afternoon and told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that George Bush, "Is probably the worst President in the history of the United States!" Guess he won't be offering him a job on "The Apprentice."
Damn, and here I thought after the Kevin Bacon post there was going to be something juicy about Reg and Pat Buchanan.
Me & Pat Buchanan...
In recent years I’ve been finding myself agreeing more and more with certified right-wing fanatic Pat Buchanan. Generally just on foreign policy, but still it gives one pause. I’ve always been to the left, very liberal. Buchanan has always leaned well to the right of Barry Goldwater. But Buch...
Obitfull Horizons
Molly Ivins - Updated
In August 2000 I was attending the Texas Association of Broadcasters convention in San Antonio when I worked for these people. We cosponsored on a regular basis the TAB's awards dinner and this one was taking place at the Institute of Texas Cultures. One of the benefits of being the cosponsor wa...
500 reais ($320)
Man, I've been gone a long time. Missing the "good ol' days" when we'd have had twice that many reais (good, in this case, being relative). Daniel's 3rd birthday yesterday. He was born of a sweltering January's day in Laranjeiras.
Apparently Everything's Up For Grabs
One wonders if this is a first: In a new twist in Rio de Janeiro's crime annals, scissor-wielding thieves clipped off the long, flowing locks of a 22-year-old Brazilian woman as she rode in a city bus. "We got on at the same stop and they sat behind me," sales assistant Mirna Marchetti said. "Th...
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