WhimsyLand

Steve Evans has a great article, Free (Market) Verse, over at Third Factory.  It weaves the recent history of the Poetry Foundation with anecdotes about Gioia and Kooser, and observations on the State of Poetry.

In a story that would be hard to make up, it appears that wild pigs were responsible for the recent outbreak of E. coli in spinach.  I like the wild pig defense.  I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't pop up again as the core reason for our problems in Iraq, and the culprits behind the corporate option scandal.

Stocks are on a roll and the Dow hit another high today.  Even Nasdaq is celebrating as their composite index hits its highest point in 5 years.  The folks at Nasdaq seem to have forgotten, however, that their composite was once over 5,500 — back when everyone was sinking their retirement money into Pets.com.

I've been thinking about that amazing statistic regarding housing prices and median income.  In many places on both coasts, the median home price is 12 to 15 times the median income.  That means that a 6% mortgage, together with PMI and property taxes, would consume the entire paycheck of the average homeowner (well, OK, the median homeowner).  How in the hell could that be?  It's not like the houses are owned only by the very rich — 70% of all American families own their home.  The answer is a) ARM loans with artificially low payments that are going to explode in the next couple of years, and b) home ownership isn't 70% in the highest-priced areas (more like 20% in some pricey locales where speculators account for most of the housing sales), and c) many Americans have traded in the gains in the last house to invest in their next house.  The remaining ugly truth is that, nowadays, it takes two incomes for most families to make it.  What effect this has on general family well-being I don't know, but it would be nice if Americans had the option for mom or dad to stay at home.  The irony in all of this is that the GOP, the people who specialize in corporate welfare and the elimination of estate taxes, are also the party of family values for God-fearing little guys.  You know, the ones who in large numbers would prefer their wives to home-school their kids and have dinner on the table at 5:30.

Since you asked, here's the latest poop on my sons:  Ky just got back from Las Vegas in what I hope was at least a break-even excursion (last time, he paid for the entire trip in poker winnings).  He's also co-host of an Internet radio show, Octale and Hordak vs The World.  Derek is in a killerbee Blues band, busses tables for spending money, and made the Dean's List.  He's totally Chicago now, along with Frank of Frank's Title Service.  I was chatting with Der today and he asked me how to pronounce gala, which I looked up online and then with OED.  You can pronounce gey-luh or gal-uh, but the British prefer gal-uh, and it's ultimately from Old French from a word meaning rejoicing.

Cuisine?  Cath asked me to bring greens and bread to dinner on Saturday with Ky.  It occurs to me that I used to remember my favorite jokes via short mnemonic devices on the punchline (Two Texans pissing off a bridge:  "And deep, too".).   Also, my favorite recipes such as Black Bean Cassoulet ("The French don't recognize black beans, for God's sake").   Cassoulet is the ultimate French peasant stew and cultural wars have been waged over its ingredients, which is typically duck parts, garlic sausage, and white beans.  Everything else is fought over:  tomatoes, pork, lamb, and various unmentionables.  Some have ventured that its provenance is from the 15th-century Hundred Years War and created in Castelnaudary.  Some say it was originally Arabic.  Definitive authors demand that haricot blanc dominate.  Cassoulet de Carcassonne features partridge.  Some health-conscious cooks report that Cassoulet is "good for the health and relatively light", though most recipes call for almost 2 pounds of bacon in a cassoulet for 8.  Also pork knuckles, pieces of preserved goose, up to 7 onions, and the inevitable bouquet garni.  All agree that it should be served bubbling in its clay or porcelain pot with a natural crust, unenhanced by bread crumbs.  Now, if I just had a lot of somebodies to make this for.  I haven't checked recently.  Maybe Tony R. is coming to town soon.

More tomorrow.