mofaha's New Writeups

Cloud Atlas (idea)

2006-11-21T08:49:33Z

I'm reading The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, a work of fiction based in part upon historic events, which is written in the period style and language of the narrator. I'm usually uncomfortable with this sort of thing. In my experience attempts to reproduce historical styles or dialects are too often a distraction, an affectation which seeks to add 'flavour' to the tale but in reality does little to add true depth or believability to the writing. The characters themselves are often just caricatures, or clumsy and one-dimensional embodiments of historical movements or trends. But this story is very different.

Adam Ewing is a Californian writing around 1850, and Mitchell does a superb job of catching not just the written mannerisms of the time, but also the mindset of the fictional author. Ewing is no mere caricature, and far from being simply a mouthpiece for the prevalent beliefs and assumptions of his time he is informed by his own unique understanding and humanity. There is, in…

jugged hare (thing)

2002-11-13T02:19:14Z

As the name suggests, this very old (1700s) British recipe traditionally calls for hare, although at least one version I've found states that "other game can be used in this dish, but remember that whatever it is it should be hung for some days in a cool room prior to cooking."⁽¹⁾ I think it's fair to say that the really important principle here is the hanging, since any small animal which has been killed and then hung on a nail for a few days after its demise will quickly acquire a distinctive 'gamey' flavour.

To clear up any uncertainty early on: a hare is very much like a rabbit, with the essential difference that it's not one. The term 'jugged' refers to the fact that the ingredients are "combined in a casserole (traditionally a heatproof crock or jug). "⁽²⁾

Ok, let's look at the ingredients. We'll be making enough here for your 4 worst enemies.

Ingredients

…

Monkeys Versus Donkeys (idea)

2002-04-15T21:54:47Z

Monkeys Versus Donkeys is a song by Larry 'Wild Man' Fischer. It comes from the 1968 album An Evening With Wild Man Fischer, which was produced by none other than Frank Zappa. As far as I've been able to ascertain, the two met when Frank was approached by Larry on West Hollywood's Sunset Strip. Larry's gig in those days was to approach passers-by and offer to 'sell' them a performance of one of his songs for a dime. Given the nature of those songs, I seriously doubt that he had to sing more than a couple of lines to most of his astonished customers before they were satisfied.

Ba ba-ba ba ba, ba ba-ba ba ba
Ba ba-ba ba ba bow
Ba ba-ba ba ba, ba ba-ba ba ba
Ba ba-ba ba ba baaa
Ba BAW ba-ba-ba ba-ba ba-ba-ba!
Er eh-eh er eh-eh er er!

Frank and Larry met around the same time that Zappa would have been working on his album We're Only In It For The Money, which is basically a sustained and vicious attack on pretty much everything that…

Tonsil cheese (thing)

2002-03-04T03:26:39Z

"Kirsty has a bizarre question - she has sneezed and a small white ball with a totally off-putting, disgusting scent has come out. This has happened to her three times in the last year. What is it?"

E2 already contains descriptions of many interesting 'cheeses' which are not really cheeses at all, such as head cheese, neck cheese, and corpse cheese. Here's another one to add to the list.

Tonsil cheese is formed in folds and wrinkles (known as 'crypts') of the tonsils. There is some debate about its actual makeup; it is most often claimed to be composed of a buildup of bacteria and cell debris. Other theories suggest that it is composed of trapped food that has rotted, that it is a buildup of solidified mucus, or that it is a ball of dried-out pus formed at the site of an infection.

Despite the disagreements regarding its exact composition, there is broad agreement on the following facts:

Tonsil…

@ (thing)

2001-11-24T04:31:35Z

@ brief history

Probably the most obvious and familiar use of this symbol is as an e-mail separator, and as such it has been in use since it was chosen by Ray Tomlinson in 1972. Its use in business, however, is somewhat more established.

Its first recorded use dates back nearly 500 years, when it was used by Florentine merchants to represent an amphora, a measure based on the capacity of the standard terracotta jars that were used at that time to transport grain and liquid. The sign for it was the letter 'a', embellished in the typical manner of Florentine script.

This symbol was later adopted in Northern Europe with the (still-familiar) meaning 'at the price of'. It was due to this usage that it was included on early typewriter keyboards (from around 1880 onwards). Its continued use was reflected in the fact that it was included in the list of standard ASCII characters in the 1960's. Due to its ubiquitous use in e-mail addresses, its use now…

Adipocere (thing)

2001-10-02T19:36:05Z

Also known as grave wax, mortuary fat, and corpse cheese, adipocere is a soap-like or waxy substance formed from the fat and soft tissue of human or animal remains after interment. Adipocere is most commonly produced in waterlogged burials and on the bodies of drowning victims, although it can also form in the presence of less moisture; thus, there are generally two types of adipocere, known respectively as 'wet' and 'dry'.

Adipocere can be anywhere between creamy off-white and brown in colour, and varies in consistency from slimy like old wet soap to solid like candle wax. When heat is applied to it, it generally behaves exactly as wax does: it first becomes pliable, and eventually clarifies and melts. In its initial stages of formation it smells of ammonia, but in later stages the odour can be anywhere between sweet and cheesy.

As noted above, the presence of moisture is necessary for the formation of adipocere. Absence of free oxygen and a…