Live. Love. E[ART]h

Friday, September 10, 2010

Topics Free Text Friday

"The United States consumes 25% of all the world’s energy."

"Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use."
- Charles Schulz

"God gives every bird his worm, but He does not throw it into the nest."
- P.D. James


"Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of one's own"
- Arthur Schophauer

"That one small boy with a face like pallid cheese And burnt-out little eyes could make a blaze As brazen, fierce and huge, as red and gold And zany yellow as the one that spoiled Three thousand guineas' worth of property And crops at Godwin's Farm on Saturday Is frightening -- as fact and metaphor: An ordinary match intended for The lighting of a pipe or kitchen fire Misused may set a whole menagerie Of flame-fanged tigers roaring hungrily. And frightening, too, that one small boy should set The sky on fire and choke the stars to heat Such skinny limbs and such a little heart Which would have been content with one warm kiss Had there been anyone to offer this."
- Vernon Scannell

"October 8th, 1871. On this day in 1871, flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary, gniting a 2-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 people, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless and causes an estimated $200 million (In 1871 dollars; $3 billion in 2007 dollars) in damages."

Eating and Drinking

The region that is home to Florence has one of the most versatile and varied-form cooking traditions in Italy, that we have already mentioned in our tourists guide to Tuscany. We are going to try and provide a more specific view, limiting ourselves to the city of Florence and the area immediately around it.

Florentine cooking is linked to a tradition of simple dishes prepared with genuine, tasty but plain ingredients, which has recently been reconsidered by the world of more sophisticated cuisine. Cereal, bread, vegetable and oil (which must be extra-virgin) are the basis of many recipes that just have to be tried in one of the many restaurants in Florence.

Simple food, such as cannellini beans and other vaguely ingredients such as tripe and livers are transformed into pleasant, tasty dishes, served on both stalls and in local inns and also in luxury restaurants. We can therefore find: fagioli all'uccelletto (beans), boiled and then fried in oil and tomato sauce; trippa alla fiorentina, (tripe) covered in tomato and grated parmesan cheese; lampredotto, the darkest part of tripe, used for soups and risottos, but also liked by many locals as a filling for a sandwich; crostini toscani with liver pate. And the unforgettable "fiorentina" a cut of meat from the Chianina cow, famous worldwide, to be tried in any restaurant in Florence.

"Putting on fierce boots is an instant pick-me-up."
- Nina Garcia, Fashion editor of Marie Claire

"Olive oil has been more than mere food to the people of the Mediterranean: it has been medicinal, magical, an endless source of fascination and wonder and the fountain of great wealth and power. The olive tree, symbol of abundance, glory and peace, gave its leafy branches to crown the victorious in friendly games and bloody war, and the oil of its fruit has anointed the noblest of heads throughout history."

http://www.globalgourmet.com

"11/11/11... World War I ends on this day, in 1918. "At the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month..."


"Unless you take big risks you are not going to learn a lot ... the interesting things that happen in life involve precipices."
- Robert Storr, 11.19.10, Austin, TX


In 1598 Michel de Montaigne wrote:
"There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and though it time well spent."