A few of us were sitting around doing stupid
musician tricks, and we were discussing pitch
acuity, and I came in second (I could reliably
distinguish 1/7 tones across the spectrum and within
the western scale midrange with which I am most
familiar quite a bit better). The point was that I
came in second, and the one who came in first has
quite a bit wider musical appreciation than I do.

So presumably has listened to more pitches....?

Or: could hear more pitches.

Ah. Did she pick up on your mistakes...? or was it good enough for her...?

Probably; but I've been tentatively hired to
play another performance of it later.

I'd guess you didn't do too badly then.... and/or she figures another performance would give you more of a chance to learn it better... ;)

It's not all that worthwhile of a piece,
but the incentive of a few hundred dollars
might tip the balance.

A second.

Almost as bad... :)

I thought so. I heard a tape of the premiere,
whose violinist was an old friend of mine (I
discovered after the fact), and she made a
completely different set of mistakes from mine;
on the whole I thought she had done a better
job than I, but she's more expensive, also.

That might be a factor as well.... or maybe the composer was less
bothered by your mistakes....

Possibly.

+

Artificial fats are pretty much off the
markets. Unless you mean hydrogenated,
which might straddle the fence between
natural and artificial.

That's true, they did do away with the most egregious ones... but I do
also tend to stay away from the hydrogenated mostly now, too...

My hierarchy is: fat I've rendered myself;
butter; olive oil; commercial rendered animal
fats; other oil; Crisco. More or less.

Understandable... I, for one, do enjoy your cooking, and I know there
are others who do as well... :) So I'm glad that you are still up for it.. ;)

From time to time.

Hopefully not too infrequently....

As needed. I don't volunteer any more, nor
do I foolishly hear about some impossible
task and say, scornfully, oh, I can do that
standing on one leg, even if it's true.

I've never been a fruit soup person but have
tolerated them well; at least, I seldom die
right after eating one.

Or wish you could.... dunno as I've had any, actually....

Have a soup made with dried fruit and see
what happens. If you've never had the
opportunity, imagine whirled peas, er,
stewed prunes.

That could make an interesting experience.... ;)

N-n-n-n ...

I like the idea of cherries, actually... I like them better than strawberries, usually... :)

Funny - my Bonnie can't stand cherries or raisins.
Nicholas hated raisins, so I accused him once of
having eaten a cockroach in his childhood. Lilli
loves raisins.

I like raisins well enough.... when we were kids, we'd joke that the
raisins in our oatmeal were cockroaches, but it never stopped us from
eating them.... ;) To this day, oatmeal seems incomplete without
raisins cooked into it... ;) And butter, brown sugar and milk atop
it... ;)

To this day, oatmeal seems incomplete.

Or one could wear one of those half masks
that cover the eyes. The Fledermaus that I
probably won't be able to attend is
subsidiarily called The Masked Ball, and
productions cheap out and make blocking easier
by using eye masks, which makes the mistaken
identity bit absurd as well as hilarious.

I'd guess so... Was that what you were going to see in Germany, which
trip is being superceded by necessary tests in CA...? And what are they testing for....?

Yeah. Looking to see if my condition is good
enough for my system to tolerate eye surgery,
which would be both cataract and something
else, all at once.

Was that on your Asian trip...?

Lilli pointed out that we could look down on it
from our room in the Conrad Hong Kong (the hotel
is on a hill, the China Bank Tower is at the end
of Garden St., near sea level).

Ah. :)

So there are these triplet hotels that anchor
the Pacific Place shopping center partway up
the hill - the Conrad, where I can afford to
stay on a splurge, the JW, where Ian and Jacquie
can afford to stay when his brother is treating,
and the Shangri-La, where nobody I know can afford
to stay. The Conrad is 61 stories tall, with the
higher the elite and/or the more you pay, the
higher floor you get to stay on. The club is on
59, and there are two rarefied floors above that,
which I have never seen (I have seen the secret
staircase to the 60th story). As a fairly high
elite on a fairly low fare, I got assigned 56,
which gets to just look down on the original set
of skyscrapers in the city.

Lilli wanted to take the Peak Tram to get the
panoramic view, and I sort of said no, and she
said, you didn't want to go to Macau, don't be a
spoilsport, and so off we went, and we ended up
at 423 m, where our room was just 200 m lower, and
we had pretty much the same view (you can get a
glimpse of the other side of the island from the
Peak, but recent development and the growth of a
stand of trees makes the view in that direction
much less interesting than it was years ago).

Yellow split pea soup with prunes
categories: vegan, main, I am not kidding but should be
servings: 2

1 c yellow split peas
4 Tb extra-virgin olive oil
1 sm onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 sm carrot, cubed 1/2"
2 md potatoes
1/2 c celery, diced
1/2 c green cabbage, 1/2 in pieces
1/2 c white wine
2 c vegetable stock
2/3 c\ pitted prunes
2 bay leaves
1 ts cayenne pepper
1 Tb white wine vinegar
1/2 Tb honey
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

In a pot, bring 1 qt water to a boil. Add the split
peas and cook for 15 to 20 min or until tender.
Drain and set aside.

In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat.
Saute the onion, garlic, carrots, potato, celery
and cabbage until tender. Add wine and stock
and cook 7 to 10 min. Then add the remaining
ingredients. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Alive, 4/2000
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