WhimsyLand

I don't know.  I guess I just didn't expect Court Green to be pink.  Without really thinking too hard about it, I assumed that the last 5 issues would have come in sea green, olive, khaki, verdant green, and blue-green or something.  It's a nice journal, though.  Court Green 5 has a section "Dossier:  Sylvia Plath" in which a boatload of talented poets have written poems inspired by SP.  Here's the first part of "Departure" by Mary Jo Bang:

God's nose-end,
White nothing tower,
White-bearded, socketed face.

Fixed prison.  World of grub-
White birds' litter,
Frost, love, snowflake, fat,

I mention MJB because she precedes me immediately in the bio section.  I'm always lucky like that.  The last Academy of American Poets donor list had me right after Ashbery.  A recent journal had me directly following Seth Abramson.  It's kind of spooky, really.  But, I digress.  In the main poetry section, there are lots of fine poets represented whose names I recognize:  Noelle Kocot, Ron Koertge, Mark Yakich, Aaron Anstett, Jordan Davis, Denise Duhamel, Steve Schroeder, Stephanie Strickland, Adam Clay, Noah Eli Gordon and Alice Notley.  Lots more too, of course.  I liked "Nail Guns in the Morning", a strange poem by Susan Briante.  It starts out "Nail guns in the morning from the street behind my house, / Outside: tin roof, cement tabletops, "vast maw of modernity" (Sontag), the UPS man, / someone has painted all my windows shut" and ends with "Stop the war, stop the war, stop the war, stop the war, stop the war".  Also, Kristin Abraham's "Fits, Starts, Etc.", which begins "(It wasn't as simple as  / "wife kills husband with hatchet.")".  Also, Brent Goodman's "My First Queer Poem":  "Of course I shake all my martinis Sapphire, / appreciate art, MFA'd, these shoes international, / chocolate chaise zen-modern, whip smart attire".  Also, Tom Christopher's "Study of Thomas with Powdered Wig and Quill":  "I have said this before:  Every moment is a babe of two humours -- one brightly vile and slightly sandy, the other a honeyed liquor, a flourish, an airy hissing like an angry goose".  Actually, there is a lot of strange and wonderful work in this journal.  You should probably sell your mother's pearls to the local pawnshop and buy a subscription.

I received an issue of Cook's Illustrated, which I love, which leads off with editor Christopher Kimball's folksy reminiscences, which I hate.  I mean, it's 2008 and the guy is maybe 50.  Maybe.  He talks about his childhood in Vermont as if he shared Thanksgivings with the local Native Americans.  He's always remembering having to walk to the well to get water and how he slaughtered that pig for Christmas, and what the smell of a small-guage shotgun was like after nailing that pheasant for Mom's special birthday.  All the cooking in his youth was done in a wood-fired stove.  Sheesh.  the rest of CI is pretty good, of course, since Kimball is no dummy and runs a pretty tight ship, culinary-wise.  The article on Improving Cheap Roast Beef is interesting.  Basically, you do what Adelle Davis used to say and cook a good cut (they recommend Eye-Round Roast) at 130 degrees for a long time after salting and wrapping and refrigerating for 18 hours.  The key is to put the roast in a 225 oven, then turn the oven off.  I guess you turn it on again if you have to, but they are requiring that you look periodically at the meat thermometer to make that call.  French Chicken in a Pot looks really good, too.  You take a good chicken and dry roast it in a Dutch oven with root vegetables after browning.  It cooks at 250 for 80 to 110 minutes.  No crispy skin, but wonderful flavor.  Ultracrunchy Baked Pork Chops is a matter of coating them first with a batter of flour, mustard, and egg whites, then coating with toasted bread crumbs.  The secret to the Best French Onion Soup is to deglaze the dark brown crust on the bottom of the pot at least three times.  Good recipe for Spanish-style Garlic Shrimp.  Really interesting article on No-Knead Bread, which you can make in 18 hours with very little kneading and a Dutch oven.  Roasted Broccoli, yum.  The Truth About Dark Chocolate:  Callebaut, Ghirardelli, Dagoba, Michel Clizel, and Valrhona come out on top.  The back of this issue has Exotic Mushrooms:  Beech, Fairy Ring, Nameko, Wood Ear, Bear's Head, Blue Oyser, Pippini, and Abalone.

See you tomorrow.