3 large potatoes

1 large onion (I use Bermuda or white)

3 leeks (roots only)

3 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp. tarragon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 qt stock (vegetarian or low fat chicken)

1 cup low fat/nonfat milk



peel and quarter potatoes (reserve in water)

dice onion

thinly slice leeks



in large stock pot melt butter

add leeks and onion, saute until transparent

sprinkle flour, tarragon and nutmeg

slowly add in stock, stirring constantly

add potatoes

bring just to boil, lower heat and cover

simmer for 45 minutes



put soup in blender to smooth

return to pot and add milk with whisk.

If soup has cooled, heat until desired temperature

You're done



(for added flavor you can add one red pepper diced to onion &

leeks OR two cloves garlic)



Reheats very well.

Butch's Battle

NoirDog's Vet Bills

A beautiful little dog needs your help. Can you turn down a face like that?

By the by, his person's books are brilliant.

Love Fish

"I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world." — Walt Whitman

"I always like to tell this story: I was fucking Christian Bale, Batman, up the arse on a rooftop in King’s Cross and the crew was filming from another rooftop on the adjacent building. I hadn’t done gay penetrative sex, this was my first shot at it, so I’m standing behind Christian’s big naked back, going, “Wow, this is so… Peculiar.” So I start, you know, pumping away slowly and I start to go more like a bunny rabbit, then like a Jack Russell. And I put my head to the side of his head, away from the camera, and I say, “I’m sure I’d have come by now. I’m going to have a look,” and I glanced back and I saw the crew packing up and walking away! I think Todd [Haynes] had been so respectful of us that he hadn’t wanted to interrupt us by saying, “Cut”… Or we didn’t hear “Cut”. It was very funny. Christian’s never written to me… He never phones any more… It’s really upsetting."

Ewan McGregor on his experience in Velvet Goldmine

David E. Scherman, Sylvia Beach in the upstairs apartment where she hid her books when the Germans came during the occupation, threatening to close her shop if she would not sell her first edition of “Ulysses,” 1945

From

Have deliberately polished floor where cats like to do a dramatic skid after running down the hallway.

Have deliberately put up photo that isn't one of those cats.

Which one first?

Animal. Totally Animal.




From

Hiya.

From

Attending the Dreamer's Ball

Put something up over here. The first foray into the deep dark woods of the last ten years. I was lost. Quite lost. There were times I sat down and waited patiently for the forest to grow over me and meld me into its soil. Instead it let me gestate and grow. What can be scary and overwhelming became welcoming and sustaining.

Still have some pine needles and pebbles between my toes. An owl gifted me with a feather. And I found deep tracks from a predator I've seen before. I mean to look him in the eyes soon.


The painting is Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket by James McNeill Whistler

I had such a terrible crush on my pharmacist for a while that I couldn't pick up any prescriptions. Someone had to do it for me as I hid in cold medicine.

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

— A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

As Many As Life Will Give Me

A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

Ronald Reagan

"Don’t you shush me! Eighteen years of total silence, and you shush me.”

Life of Brian (1979)

From

Your heart, that place

you don’t even think of cleaning out.

That closet stuffed with savage mementos.

— Louise Erdrich, “Advice to Myself”

Taking my toys and going home!

The Greatest American Mullet

Maybe we can write a song about this lovely gentleman and set it to the music from Greatest American Hero. Let's try!

Look at what's happened to me,
I can't believe it myself.
Suddenly I'm up on somebody's blog,
It should've been somebody else.

Believe it or not,
I chose this hair.
I never thought I could feel such glee-.
Sitting with friends at a county fair.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me.

My hair's like a party,
Going on all of the time.
My happiness and hair are unrestrained
And I didn't spend a dime!

Believe it or not,
I chose this hair.
I never thought I could feel such glee-.
Sitting with friends at a county fair.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me.

Thank you, Carl Sagan

 

Frederick J. Waugh
The Knight of the Holy Grail
ca. 1912
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans

Horrifying Cuteness.

A pottos baby. We are almost sickened by the cuteness.

“It wasn’t until I started reading and found books they wouldn’t let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else.”

— John Waters, Baltimore director, hero, human

Now

From

Keaton Insane

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."

Dust of which he breathed

“He loved a book because it was a book; he loved its odor, its form, its title. What he loved in a manuscript was its old illegible date, the bizarre and strange Gothic characters, the heavy gilding which loaded its drawings. It was its pages covered with dust — dust of which he breathed the sweet and tender perfume with delight.”
— Gustave Flaubert

Godzilla is very happy for you.

From

Le Lettre, 1908 | Jean Béraud, found at Le Musée

Build Rocket Boys!

Elbow, gentle neck rub and sunshine through the cloud music for those in the bunkers with me.

My 2010

Just Outside of Buffalo, New York

A waterfall with an eternal flame. Photo by Carl Crumley

Found at Uncertain Times 

For Dianne

After valiantly cleaning out the vacuum and going over the carpet until the color was once again visible.

Fact: The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

“ The mark of a good book is that you’re happy to come home to it. The mark of a great book is that you occasionally schedule your life to stay home with it."

Derek Thompson, associate editor - The Atlantic on The Best Book I Read This Year

From