Raven Jake Dawes

AKC Hit Picks for 2012

I'd like to send a shout out to my two favorite freaky little dogs, the Xoloitzcuintli (the Mexican hairless) and the Norwegian lundehund (the Norwegian puffin hound), for receiving the American Kennel Club's recognition as distinct breeds fit to compete in the AKC's Non-Sporting Group at dog shows nationwide. 

Over here at the right, we've got the best of their kind. According to the LA Times caption: "Namina, a Xoloitzcuintli, left, and Eowyn, a Norwegian lundehund, at the AKC's offices in New York City on Jan. 26. Credit: Gary Gershoff / Getty Images for American Kennel Club."

The Xoloitzcuintli pronounced "show-low-eats-queen-tlee" has been around in Mexico for at least 3.000 years and was a card-carrying member of the AKC until 1959. Nice to have you Xolos back. They come in two flavors - hair-on and hair-off and three sizes: small, medium and venti (which isn't really large, it's just bigger than medium, as anyone who's ever bought their coffee at Starbucks can tell you.)

Now the other one, the Norwegian lundehund, also comes from a proud tradition: this one of snaking puffins (like a penguin, but even cuter) off their nests on the sides of freezing cliffs on the Arctic Sea and bringin' them home for supper. To manage this they developed some unique physical characteristics, and here's what Lindsay Barnett has to say about that:

"they have extra toes on each paw (most have six toes on each foot, though some have seven), making them especially surefooted; thick double coats that allow them to thrive in cold weather; extremely flexible necks and shoulders; and ears that can fold closed to protect the ear canal from debris. When puffin hunting fell out of favor, the dogs did as well, and the breed nearly died out until a concerted effort to revive it was undertaken in the years after World War II."

They also have  fully articulated joints, meaning they bend like crazy. All cartillage, no bone. Frugal Fanny says:

"While today's Lundehund has many unique traits that are usually only found sporadically in other dog breeds, it bears a similarity to the Varanger Dog- a canine specimen found in Lapland, Russia, dating back 5000 years. Many scientists believe that the Lundehund is the original domesticated dog, and that it is living historical relic from before the last Ice Age."

So there you go. That picture above? Last thing a puffin ever sees. So congrats Namina and Eowyn, good luck with the competition and all your future endevors.

 

Andrew Plotsky and Butchering Pork

Left to my own devices, folks, I'd probably go vegetarian; well mostly. I just like animals too much to go around whacking them. But, if you're not butchering your own meat, that means someone else has to. Sayin' "I didn't do it" while you stuff a pastrami-on-rye in your mug ain't exactly the moral high ground. Now maybe I'm doomed to a life of ambivalence about my place on the food chain (well, under me on the food chain - anything trying to eat me, and that includes mosquitoes, is going to meet its maker, no ambivalence there) but this young man, Andrew Plotsky, is making a good case for the role of meat in community supported agriculture.

Now for my vegan, Muslim and Jewish readers, pork butcherin' might not be your cup of tea. (stick with it for about 5 minutes to see how centralized meat packing destroyed independent farmers/quality meat/the butchering profession) For everyone else who doesn't know what part of a pig the "picnic" comes from, you'd better watch and learn. 

On The Anatomy Of Thrift: Side Butchery from farmrun on Vimeo.

Protest SOPA & PIPA

Folks, I was going black for today, but Typepad hasn't gotten with the protest. Just know that I'm against anyone or anything trying to take away our first amendment rights.

Many websites are blacked out today to protest proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). From personal blogs to giants like WordPress and Wikipedia, sites all over the web — including this one — are asking you to help stop this dangerous legislation from being passed. Please watch the video below to learn how this legislation will affect internet freedom, then scroll down to take action.

 

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Old Spanish Trail Meeting on Saturday

Folks I'm a great believer in alternative energy, but I'm not a believer in giving huge tracts of pristine desert to power companies so they can ruin public land for a profit. This is becoming a huge problem all over the California desert and we're going to have to band together to do something about it.

Now some of the land that's supposed to get windmills and solar panels all over it is part of the Old Spanish Trail, specifically the Tecopa part of the trail, so I'm going to be at this meeting, and if you're going too, please RSVP with Paul McClure.

Here's the forwarded message:

Please join us on Saturday, January 21, 2012, for a very important meeting!

An OSTA Alert

Old Spanish Trail Faces New Threats in the Mojave. What Can OSTA Do? Help Us Find the Answers… Proposed solar energy and wind farm projects endanger the Old Spanish Trail corridor in some of the most sensitive and unspoiled areas of the Mojave. The Hidden Hills solar plant and the Silurian Valley wind farm would both require massive grading and erect huge structures (twin 750-foot high towers at Hidden Hills; more than 120 windmills from 250-400 feet high along Highway 127 in the scenic Silurian Valley near Death Valley). Both projects would impinge on the Trail and destroy unspoiled desert vistas.

Join with Tecopa chapter leaders and OSTA members from California and Nevada on January 21, 2012, to plan an effective response that makes sure the Trail is protected now that the U.S. is locating renewable energy in the desert. The Tecopa chapter is established with regulatory agencies as an “Intervener” and is actively engaged on these two projects, as well as ongoing research on the Trail. This is your chance to become involved. 

When: Sat., Jan. 21, 12:00 noon to 3:00 PM

Where: Gallery auditorium of the Workman-Temple Homestead Museum 
15415 East Don Julian RoadCity of Industry, California 91745 
Phone: (626) 968-8492 
Web: www.homesteadmuseum.org
Who: All OSTA members in CA and NV

Refreshments: 
Sandwiches and drinks will be available
Cost: Free to OSTA members and guests with advance registration 

The Program

OSTA’s Jan. 21 Strategy and Action Planning session will:

Review proposed projects and evaluate possible mitigation measures 

Consider proposing efficient alternatives, such as placing power generation where the population is. This can be achieved by installing rooftop on industrial and large government buildings, warehouses, and parking lots in our cities. 

Plan and organize OSTA monitoring and participation in the regulatory and environmental proceedings for each project, contacting elected officials, and coordinating with other historical and environmental organizations 

Offer you the chance to get involved with ongoing OSTA projects, including: 

Field location and recording of the 1829-1848 mule trace being conducted by the Tecopa chapter 

Archival research to document the OST in CA and NV 
Preparation of OSTA field and archival data for Geographical Information Systems (GIS) presentations. 

Register for this free event by return e-mail to Paul McClure ([email protected]) or by telephone at 909-305-0505. Please include names of all in your party who plan to attend. This is so that we can prepare an attendance list and order the right amount of food and drinks.

Congrats to Dieuwertje Kast and Roee Fung

Just wanted to give a shout out to a young married couple, Dieuwertje Kast and Roee Fung, who tied the knot on 11-11-11. DJ's Jane's favorite intern and we've become very good friends with the Kast family in the years since she was snapping pictures for the Outlook newspaper.

Over there on the right, they're cutting the cake at their underwater reception  - they met through diving and DJ's a marine biologist now - unusual event all the way around; DJ walked down the aisle to a string trio playing the Harry Potter theme. Welcome change-up from the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin, as far as I'm concerned.  

Roee's a great guy, and I'm pretty sure that now at two months, their marriage has lasted longer than Kim Kardashian's, Sinead O'Connor and Britney Spears combined, and the next 50 years or so oughtta be smooth sailing. Or diving. If you have to live in an institution - I recommend marriage, so congratulations, Dieuwertje and Roee!

Culinary Historians of SoCal on Saturday

Folks, y'all know I've been promoting the Culinary Historians of Southern California. We aren't actually members (yet) but the talks are just so darned interestin.' So here's my hit pick for Saturday - Charles Perry talking about the food of the 1001 Nights.

A Thousand and One Fritters

Saturday, January 14, 2012, at 10:30 AM
at the Los Angeles Public Library

Mark Taper Auditorium, Downtown Central Library, 630 W. 5th St.

Free and open to the public

Charles Perry speaking on…

“A Thousand and One Fritters: Food in the Arabian Nights”

Who knew that that famous collection of marvelous tales from our childhood opens a window on the cuisine of the Middle Ages? In fact, The Thousand and One Nights mentions quite a few dishes of red meat, poultry and fish, not to mention lots of pastries, even wine.

The book’s translators, alas, have little idea of what these dishes were. But now that several medieval Arab cookbooks are available to us, we can at last know what “The Lad Who Ate Zirbaja” actually ate, why the cook shop owner in “The Tale of the Two Wazirs” was threatened with crucifixion for leaving out the pepper in the dish of pomegranate seeds, and what on earth all those fritters were that the translators keep mentioning.

Charles Perry is the president and co-founder of the Culinary Historians of Southern California. He was a major contributor to the Oxford Companion to Food, has served as a trustee of the annual Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery and was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times Food Section from 1990 to 2008. He has translated four medieval Arabic recipe collections and is currently establishing the text of a fourth, based on eight manuscripts.

http://chscsite.org/a-thousand-and-one-fritters/

One City, One Book: the Sherlockian

One day perhaps I'll pull an Oprah and start (or maybe even join) a book club. That day ain't today. Mostly, I don't read novels. But on Thursay, Jane and I were off at the Crowell Public Library in San Marino doin' our thing with the Friends of the Michael White Adobe board and well, one thing led to another.

Before I could even say "mysteries are lame," Jane had checked out San Marino's "One City, One Book" for 2012, which is "The Sherlockian" by Graham Moore, and we'll be reading it over the next couple o' weeks.

The concept of "One City, One Book" was started in Seattle in 1998, and since then about 400 different cities across the country have joined in. The idea is that everyone in a community is encouraged to read the same book, attend discussions or maybe meet the author. Sometimes the book chosen is written by a local, or the story is set in that town. Sometimes they just go for a classic like "Grapes of Wrath" or "To Kill a Mockingbird." Anyway, it's supposed to encourage the community to read more, support the local library (or community center or city hall or whoever's promoting the event) and get people talkin' about books. The Library of Congress keeps a list of who's participating and what they're reading, but it's pretty badly out-of-date.

So we don't really read a lot of novels, or who-done-its, but that's not really the point of being in a book club, is it? You can read what you want to read any old time, this is about getting out of your rut and reading something different. Apparently young Graham Moore, over there on the left, is an LA guy, so maybe we'll be running into him one of these days.  So here's one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2012: Join the City of San Marino in reading "The Sherlockian." Can't hurt, might help. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

__________________________________________

Sherlockian update: I like the idea of a community book better than I like the execution, however, at least in this instance, I was surprised. I'd planned to give it the benefit of a 50-page pity read and just see if I wanted to keep going. The whole concept of a socially awkward Sherlock Holmes nut just wasn't doin' it for me, quite frankly. Then after about the fourth chapter we were totally hooked. Spent all of Sunday reading the entire book cover-to-cover out loud in bed. Got done a little after midnight. It's a page-turner, I assure you. The Crowell Library in San Marino has a bunch of Arthur Conan Doyle / Sherlock / mystery events planned culminating in the arrival of author Graham Moore in mid April. Hate to say it, but I can't wait for his next book!