Made a 24-hour chicken bone broth which I filtered four ways this morning. Now it’s setting up in the fridge, waiting for me to skim off the fat. I’ll freeze it in smaller portions to use in dishes where I want the flavor and smoothness to shine. On Friday, I picked up chicken parts from an Asian market; of course, I couldn’t resist grabbing some Japanese KitKats while I was there.
Category: Living
From Ug to Yum
Picked up ingredients for a braise, including one each of these gnarly beauties: a rutabaga and a celeriac.
United by Schools
As I walked toward the Center for Adult Learning on Lake Street, a sign thanked us for voting in favor of a property tax levy that will raise $20 million annually for technology in Minneapolis Public Schools. On Tuesday, we had voted to approve the levy and elect school board members. Inside the building we maintained a safe space where no one discussed the election.
Misty Morning, Clear Vision
This morning, the downtown view from our home is completely obscured by mist, but it will eventually clear, of course. Knowing our rights are vulnerable, we got married four years ago today, a right that was won over the objections of many in our country. We don’t count this as our anniversary, our story spans 37 years. We met in a time when people like me were routinely turned away at the border.
Coffee, Donut, and Democracy
At Open Book, a building dedicated to all things book-related, The Minnesota Center for Book Arts had set up an antique letterpress machine. How could I resist pulling the lever? I’d ducked in from the rain for a coffee and donut at FRGMT Cafe. Today, the building is also serving as our polling place, though I’d already voted by mail.
Contradictions
A random walk through Downtown, guided by traffic light signals, led me to Philip Johnson’s 1972 IDS Center, a testament to its enduring design. However, Johnson’s past as an ardent Nazi supporter in the 1930s casts a long shadow. He publicly admired “Mein Kampf,” attended the invasion of Poland, and described it as a “stirring spectacle.” While he renounced these views in the 1940s, his earlier actions forever tarnish his legacy.
How We Live
Movie night tonight! The blockbuster anime “The Boy and the Heron” is finally available for rent at a reasonable price. Today, I’ve been skimming the 1937 Japanese coming-of-age novel “How Do You Live?” (in translation, of course), which apparently provides some of the philosophical underpinnings of the movie but not the plot. Interestingly, the novel also makes an appearance within the film itself. The author’s backstory is a lesson for our times as we slide towards authoritarianism.
From Darkness to Light
Went on a journey from despair to celebration with the Minnesota Orchestra. The opening piece was based on W. B. Yates’ dark poem, Nine Hundred and Nineteen, reflecting the turmoil of Ireland in 1919. The concert concluded with Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony composed in 1944 Russia with notes of celebration in the final movement. Time will tell if there are parallels with the upcoming days in the USA.
Minneapolis Day Out
Took the LRT to Minnehaha Park with a friend visiting from the UK, then walked back along the Mississippi, stopping for lunch. As always, I took a picture of Minnehaha Falls. Each time there’s something different: today the waterfall was throwing off a mist and the flow was enhanced by yesterday’s heavy rain and melting snow.
Halloween Snowstorm
Anybody who’s lived in these parts any length of time knows about the Halloween Blizzard of 1991 when 28.4 inches of snow fell, a single-storm record for the Twin Cities. I was thinking about that as I stood in heavy rain waiting for the bus to school this morning. Later, it turned to sleet and then snow, which is now accumulating on grassy areas. Hard to believe it was 80 degrees on Tuesday.