Small Talk: The Polygamous Cul-de-Sac

[Twopper]

1 hour ago, ginger90 said:

Today in a checkout line, a cashier pulled her mask down when she couldn’t understand what a little girl was saying to her. It reminded me of myself turning the radio down in the car when I’m looking for an address.

I have had to ask people to repeat what they are saying as I cannot always understand thru the masks, and I have good hearing. 

The number of "cases" always leaves me wondering what percent are just people testing positive who aren't sick and who test negative in a few more days.  It seems like a "case" should be someone who tests positive plus something.  Exactly what that something should be eludes me except I think it should usually include a symptom, but that is tricky as I have sinus and an occasional cough and a tendency to suddenly sniffle when I first wear a mask.  We have only seen our two children and their spouses once since this began, and it was on separate occasions.   I try to keep a week or 10 days distance between seeing people or going to the store.  We have delayed doc visits.    I try to keep up with the local stats almost daily, mostly looking at the "doubling time" and at hospitalizations and deaths.  I cannot imagine how awful it is to have a family member die from this @Yeah No.  The father of a friend died earlier this week, but it is another death with no funeral.  I think the Mass will be live streamed, but only family members can attend; it is a huge family, though.

[Absolom]

The reason to count all the positives is that even asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people are spreading COVID.  You don't have to have symptoms to have the virus and give it to other people.

[Scarlett45]

7 hours ago, TurtlePower said:

THIS. It drives me nuts when people forget their nose is an entrance and exit to their respiratory system and have their masks hanging under them. I wear mine 8 hours a day over my nose at my main job--and I have panic disorder and autism--so if I can do it, most other adults can, too. 

Watching so many people wear their masks under their nose, now enables me at the right bold age of 35 to understand why condoms have such a high failure rate. (Laughing my joke not improper mask wearing)

[Twopper]

6 hours ago, Absolom said:

The reason to count all the positives is that even asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people are spreading COVID.  You don't have to have symptoms to have the virus and give it to other people.

I didn't mean not count them,  I just meant to distinguish them somehow.  I know a person who has had 6-7 tests of which 2 were positive.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Twopper

[Kohola3]

At this point I am living as though everyone is positive no matter what the tests show. I cannot take the chance so will continue with my hermit lifestyle, curbide pick ups and wearing a mask everywhere. It's not ideal and I know that I am lucky to be retired and can do that but that's my world.  Too many people in this red-neck area STILL think this is a hoax blown out of proportion. I am so wanting to slap them silly.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Kohola3
spelling

[deirdra]

I read one poll asking people about their mask cleanliness.  ~6% said they washed their mask after every use (or disposed of their one-use masks), ~6% admitted to never washing or disposing of their mask, ~88% said they washed it ~once a week.  So even if they don't have COVID, they could have touched something or been coughed upon, getting the virus on the outside of their mask and then dispersed it when they breathe out.  

So I behave as if everyone could be positive and distance myself.

Edited November 8, 2020 by deirdra

[suomi]

I heard this on talk radio last night and thought "yeah, right" but decided to look for more reputable sources today. IMO, this patient is rare only because we don't know what we don't know. Others like her perhaps have not been "discovered" because they have not been in the right place at the right time. 

If there's one thing we know about SARS-CoV-2, is that its effects on people vary. A lot. As the pandemic rolls on, this coronavirus continues to bring new surprises.

A team of researchers and doctors has now reported the case of one woman with leukemia who had no symptoms of COVID-19 but 70 days after her first positive test she was still shedding infectious SARS-CoV-2 particles.

https://www.sciencealert.com/case-study-reveals-rare-patient-who-showed-no-symptoms-but-shed-infectious-sars-cov-2-for-70-days

A 71-year-old immunocompromised woman at a Washington hospital shed SARS-CoV-2 for up to 70 days and tested positive for the virus 105 days after her initial diagnosis, according to a pre-proof study published in Cell.

Researchers said the patient had chronic lymphocytic leukemia and was unable to produce virus antibodies. After the patient's initial COVID-19 diagnosis March 2, she was tested 14 more times over the course of the next 15 weeks and continued to test positive through June 14. She remained asymptomatic throughout the entire course of infection. 

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/asymptomatic-patient-was-actively-infectious-for-70-days-study-finds.html

For this study, the researchers actually tested the samples to see if the virus on the swab would still be able to infect lab-grown cells. And that’s how they found that this particular patient was still infectious after 70 days.

“This indicates that, most likely, the infectious virus shed by the patient would still be able to establish a productive infection in contacts upon transmission,” the scientists said.

What allowed the virus to survive for so long was a preexisting condition in the host. The 71-year-old patient has chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CCL). That’s a form of slow-progressing white blood cell cancer that impacted her immune response. The white blood cells, like the T cells that are mentioned in plenty of COVID-19 immunity studies, are involved in immunity processes. The woman was diagnosed with CCL 10 years ago, and researchers believe that immunocompromised patients like her might shed the virus for much longer than others.

https://bgr.com/2020/11/05/coronavirus-symptoms-asymptomatic-transmission-70-days-record/

Edited November 8, 2020 by suomi
clarity

[deirdra]

Interesting, but scary, suomi.  It must mean on average people stop testing positive within 14 days because their immune systems are killing it off, not because the virus becomes less infective on its own.

[Pickleinthemiddle]

23 minutes ago, deirdra said:

I read one poll asking people about their mask cleanliness.  ~6% said they washed their mask after every use (or disposed of their one-use masks), ~6% admitted to never washing or disposing of their mask, ~88% said they washed it ~once a week.  So even if they don't have COVID, they could have touched something or been coughed upon, getting the virus on the outside of their mask and then dispersed it when they breathe out.  

So I behave as if everyone could be positive and distance myself.

My daughter was laid off for a few weeks and went to JoAnn's and bought a lot of fabric and made masks.  I wear a clean one every day.  It doesn't take that much material to make one and it really needs to be at least 3 layers.  They can be made by hand.  When stores ran out of elastic my daughter used an old pair of leggings to make the ear loops which are much softer on the ears.  Yes everyone should wear a clean mask every day.  If you have to, wash it everyday when you take a shower.

[Kohola3]

7 hours ago, Pickleinthemiddle said:

I wear a clean one every day.  It doesn't take that much material to make one and it really needs to be at least 3 layers. 

I have a whole wardrobe of masks and have made a boatload of them for friends and family. I have a stash in my car so that I can always have a clean one available and toss the whole bunch in the wash once a week.  Mine all have fusible interfacing between two tightly woven cotten layers and pass the "blow out the candle" test.  I also add a pipe cleaner bridge to be molded over the nose.   Since we're going to be wearing these for a long time I try to get seasonal fabrics - just made some for Christmas and winter (with snowflakes) and autumn leaves to get me through Thanksgiving.  May as well be entertaining myself! 

Luckily elastic is now available - it was a mess at the beginning when I was asked to supply masks for an entire medevac pilot group and I had to scrounge up enough for that!

[Adiba]

14 hours ago, Twopper said:

I didn't mean not count them,  I just meant to distinguish them somehow.  I know a person who has had 6-7 tests of which 2 were positive.

Right--are repeat tests (such as the case posted about by @suomi) counted as such, or are they counted as individual new cases? The asymptomatic woman was tested 70 times,

What I found fascinating about that case was that the woman has a weak immune system, yet did not get sick from being covid positive. She's 71 and has a preexisting condition --things that should make her very much at risk for getting seriously ill with the virus yet shows no symptoms of it. 

[suomi]

5 minutes ago, Adiba said:

What I found fascinating about that case was that the woman has a weak immune system, yet did not get sick from being covid positive. She's 71 and has a preexisting condition --things that should make her very much at risk for getting seriously ill with the virus yet shows no symptoms of it. 

That's what I couldn't figure out either. I found seven links about her and posted three. I read each one because I was just sure that one would mention "deceased" or "prior to her death" but none of them did. I do wonder if she has/will have underground damage that will show later, like heart or lung or thyroid gland complications. She must be fairly spry and spunky. Maybe she hoses kids on her lawn!

[Absolom]

54 minutes ago, Adiba said:

Right--are repeat tests (such as the case posted about by @suomi) counted as such, or are they counted as individual new cases? The asymptomatic woman was tested 70 times,

I can only speak for our county, but each person only gets counted once no matter how many tests they have.  I expect that's how most other US places count as it normally would follow CDC guidance.  

[Kohola3]

11 minutes ago, Absolom said:

I can only speak for our county, but each person only gets counted once no matter how many tests they have.  I expect that's how most other US places count as it normally would follow CDC guidance.  

I think this is one of the reasons that why there are such varying numbers - there doesn't seem to be a standard that everyone follows.  It's like raw numbers vs. per capita.  One million cases comes across very differently if there are one million cases in a country with two million people as opposed to one million cases in a country with one hundred million people.

[Absolom]

Yes, reporting varies so widely.  I had to check to see where our county was in comparison to the population of other states because that's the only way to make sense of the total numbers.  Right now we're averaging around 400 a day of new cases.  We're also, as a county, about the middle of the states in population.  The joys of living in the state with the most people.  For the most part, I follow cases per 100,000.  

[Kohola3]

My go-to Covid site is NPR.  They show numbers if various ways so you can pick what makes more sense to you.  

[suomi]

Alex Trebek, 80, died at his home this morning.

He always seemed younger than his age, didn't he? Jeopardy will never be the same. I wasn't having it when he took over for original host Art Fleming in 1984. I tried to watch for years and would always change the channel in disgust and then one day it was OK. Art was an elitist about the show and Alex was an everyman. His episodes will air through December 25.

I looked at some 1984 photos and realized I had forgotten how nice looking Alex was in his younger days. He sorta had a Robert Goulet thing going on. 

Alex will be greatly missed. 

https://images.app.goo.gl/zki2G9fZFRRh2ick7

Edited November 8, 2020 by suomi
I forgot Alex was foxy

[Kohola3]

57 minutes ago, suomi said:

Alex Trebek, 80, died at his home this morning.

 

Bless him, I thought he was a wonderful and gracious host.  And sharing his struggle was so courageous.

[suomi]

 

[suomi]

Dyslexia was mentioned in Mariah's thread.

A dyslexic robber ran into a bank. He screamed: "Air in the hands mother stickers this is a f*ck up!"

http://www.jokes4us.com/peoplejokes/dyslexicjokes.html

[Teafortwo]

On 11/7/2020 at 11:23 PM, deirdra said:

I read one poll asking people about their mask cleanliness.  ~6% said they washed their mask after every use (or disposed of their one-use masks), ~6% admitted to never washing or disposing of their mask, ~88% said they washed it ~once a week.  So even if they don't have COVID, they could have touched something or been coughed upon, getting the virus on the outside of their mask and then dispersed it when they breathe out.  

So I behave as if everyone could be positive and distance myself.

Good lord. I'm not surprised by this, but it's disheartening to say the least. I see people every day touching their masks, adjusting them, pulling them on and then down.

My cousin had covid in May. Last weekend he spiked a fever of 104 and went to the ER, where they tested him for covid. Thankfully,  he didn't have it. Turned out to be a very serious bacterial infection (intestinal that migrated to blood).

In subsequent discussions of hygiene,  I discovered he doesn't sanitize his phone, re-wears a KN95 mask multiple times and so forth. This is a well educated (Masters degree in math) 55 yr old man. 

I'm keeping my mask and face shield on, wherever I go. Even when taking out the garbage.

[Kohola3]

Promising news this morning by Pfizer on a vaccine.  Oddly enough I got a letter from my physician recently saying we should expect one by December.  It's the first time they communicated something positive since the beginning, mostly urges us to wear masks and stay home as much as possible.

Stock market rocketed up this morning as well.

Now we need to stay vigilant and stay the course because the numbers are getting way out of hand.  Let's hope that people don't take the news as a reason to relax their guard.

[Kellyee]

Quote

My cousin had covid in May. Last weekend he spiked a fever of 104 and went to the ER, where they tested him for covid. Thankfully,  he didn't have it. Turned out to be a very serious bacterial infection (intestinal that migrated to blood).

In subsequent discussions of hygiene,  I discovered he doesn't sanitize his phone, re-wears a KN95 mask multiple times and so forth. This is a well educated (Masters degree in math) 55 yr old man. 

A coworker's brother, also 50's, waited so long to seek medical attention for horrible abdominal pain. When he finally went to the doctor, he died a few weeks later. Stage 4 colon cancer. He had been having pain for over a year. Some people live in denial. 

Did all the homes in Las Vegas sell? Do we know what is holding up building on "the land" in Flagstaff? I feel like the land should have it's own discussion thread on here, LOL. From the Instagram accounts, it doesn't seem like the wives miss each other (or Kody) very much. 

 

 

 

 

[Yeah No]

15 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

Now we need to stay vigilant and stay the course because the numbers are getting way out of hand.  Let's hope that people don't take the news as a reason to relax their guard.

You mean this is what it's like when people have their guards up?  LOL 😉 

If so, I shudder to think of what it would be like if they let them down....200,000 cases a day?  300,000?

But yeah, I agree with you that the vaccine news is good.

[suomi]

Her parents emigrated to the US from Russia, her birth name was Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko. Natalie Wood Life magazine photos from '40s, '50s, '60s. With Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Nick Adams, Dennis Hopper. Splendor In The Grass, with Warren, good movie. I loved her profile, she had the cutest nose. Miracle On 34th Street, when she was 8. Sigh. 

I still think RJ killed her, and Chris Walken knows it. Her greatest fear was deep, dark water and she couldn't swim. She never would have gotten into a dinghy after dark and shoved off alone, in the ocean. Superstition says changing a boat's name brings bad luck; she and RJ changed their new yacht's name to Splendour. 

That's all I got today. 

https://www.life.com/people/natalie-wood-rare-photos/

[Kohola3]

17 hours ago, Yeah No said:

You mean this is what it's like when people have their guards up?  LOL 😉 

I know, right?  Had a flat tire and had to go to Walmart to get it fixed today.  At least half of the customers were maskless.  I huddled outside the building away from everyone. 

[LilWharveyGal]

Do we have any air fryer owners here?

I need another kitchen appliance like I need another hole in my head, but some cooking videos I've watched lately have made an air fryer look really useful, and I honestly don't have anything else for frying. Plus, there'd be time to put it on my Santa list...

So, worth it? And if so, any favorite brands?

Edited November 11, 2020 by LilWharveyGal

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, LilWharveyGal said:

Do we have any air fryer owners here?

I need another kitchen appliance like I need another hole in my head, but some cooking videos I've watched lately have made an air fryer look really useful, and I honestly don't have anything else for frying. Plus, there'd be time to put it on my Santa list...

So, worth it? And if so, any favorite brands?

I have a Nina Foodi Grill, which has an air fryer in it.  I use it mostly for the grill, which I LOVE, but I have used the air fryer.  I'm so-so on it.  Some things come out great, others as good but not better than if cooked in the oven.  I don't think it's the fryer itself as it gets great reviews, it's just me and my expectations.  The way air fryers have been pushed makes them sound like they produce food that tastes just like it came out of the deep fryer, but even when I follow all the tips to make things taste more like they've been deep fried I always end up a little disappointed.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great thing to have, and I used it more during the warm weather so as not to let the oven heat up the house, but it didn't exactly live up to my expectations.  I have friends that swear by them and love the results so YMMV.

[iwantcookies]

3 hours ago, LilWharveyGal said:

Do we have any air fryer owners here?

I need another kitchen appliance like I need another hole in my head, but some cooking videos I've watched lately have made an air fryer look really useful, and I honestly don't have anything else for frying. Plus, there'd be time to put it on my Santa list...

So, worth it? And if so, any favorite brands?

I love mine use it daily. I got a chef man for $30. I use it for fries, snacks, chicken etc 

[Meowwww]

I have an air fryer, not the new toaster-oven type but the big black tub type. 
I rarely use it.  My issue is that when making food in it, it stinks. It blows the stinky air into the house. The smell isn’t “yummy food being made”, it’s “phew that food stinks, just smells off”.  
The only thing I make in it anymore is frozen tortellini, it gets crispy and is good dunked into sauce.  But even that stinks when cooking.  

[ginger90]

19 minutes ago, Meowwww said:

I have an air fryer, not the new toaster-oven type but the big black tub type. 
I rarely use it.  My issue is that when making food in it, it stinks. It blows the stinky air into the house. The smell isn’t “yummy food being made”, it’s “phew that food stinks, just smells off”.  
The only thing I make in it anymore is frozen tortellini, it gets crispy and is good dunked into sauce.  But even that stinks when cooking.  

I read that this odor will go away after multiple uses, if it’s similar to a plastic smell.

I don’t have one, but I’ve been looking at reviews and such.

🤷🏼‍♀️

 

[DakotaJustice]

Talking about fruitcake on the Janelle thread brought my mind to one of my favorite Christmas short stories - A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote.  It's a little memoir about his boyhood living with his much older distant cousin in rural Alabama. 

The main part of the story is "Fruitcake weather" when the two of them would make 30 fruitcakes to send as gifts to various people including FDR. 

It's a sweet story, I was happy to find it on the Internet Archive last night! 

They made a TV movie in 1966 narrated by TC which won an Emmy. It's on YouTube: 

 

[questionfear]

On 11/8/2020 at 6:14 PM, Kohola3 said:

Why is it that people who want to "be free to be me" are so set on hanging labels on everyone? I don't introduce friends or family as gay, or heterosexual, or transgender.  They are my friend X or X my relative (fill in the relationship).  It seems silly to me.

I'm bringing this in from the Mariah topic since it's somewhat off-topic (or at least not on-topic enough to remain there).

The thing is that labels do matter, because they help group and unite people under one cause. I think it's easy for everyone to assume the fight is over, we all have equal rights, so what's the big deal. But think about it this way:

-It's only been 41 years since the Stonewall Riots that kicked off the concept of pride month and helped kick off a more vocal LGBTQ rights movement. 

-It's only been 17 years since sodomy laws were officially struck down.

-It's only been 5 years since same-sex marriage was legalized. 

-29 states DO NOT have laws against conversion therapy. 

-23 states DO NOT have laws against firing someone for being LGBTQ. 

So while labels feel arbitrary and sometimes slice and dice things very small, it's because without labels at all, we disappear. The default in this country is still dangerous for LGBTQ americans in many ways, and that means being bound together by labels and groups in order to get the laws passed that will protect us-once those are passed, then you can say there's no need for labels. 

This may not be what anyone meant by the labels discussion, but I figured I could clear it up probably more clearly than Mariah ever could, and if I tried to explain this in her thread it would be way off topic because getting into actual specifics isn't really her thing so much as vaguely shouting into the void. 

[TurtlePower]

13 hours ago, LilWharveyGal said:

Do we have any air fryer owners here?

I need another kitchen appliance like I need another hole in my head, but some cooking videos I've watched lately have made an air fryer look really useful, and I honestly don't have anything else for frying. Plus, there'd be time to put it on my Santa list...

So, worth it? And if so, any favorite brands?

As others have said, totally worth it. Ours is a little old now, probably 8 years (when they were newer on the scene) and was a gift from my parents. We'd like to get another one because ours is a tad small, but it still works great (Philips). They've since come a long way and are larger, more affordable and versatile than they used to be. 

The thing is amazing, but we do need to give it a clean with oven cleaner every now and then to get the sticky residue off. 

[deirdra]

I mainly use my (Ninja 5-in-1) air fryer for "frying" chicken (with or without skin) & bacon because it contains the fat and the parts can all go in the dishwasher. It cooks from frozen in half the time of a regular oven and the chicken stays moist inside. Sliced sweet potatoes make great fries with only salt on them.

[suomi]

I have a foot in two worlds because I see the equality of questionfear's and kohola's posts.

I am very fortunate because my parents were open-minded enough to make up for how prejudiced my grandparents were. While we were growing up we spent more waking hours with our grandparents than our parents. As much as we loved them we were pretty young when we realized that we were appalled by the views our grandparents held, and taught to us. By grace alone, our young minds instinctively knew to reject the slurs and labels they thrived on. Looking back, I can see that their world was changing and they were being left behind. They were no longer top dog, and it had never occurred to them that it wouldn't last forever. I don't excuse them but I understand their motives.

On the other hand, my home with my parents during the '50s and '60s was like the United Nations flying the Rainbow Flag. It never occurred to us kids to categorize someone by their color or religion. We judged our parent's friends on friendliness, sense of humor, manners, did they help clear the table and clean the kitchen (which were our jobs). We didn't pick up on the sexuality thing until we were older but after we did it still was no big deal.

The dichotomy is that there was a lot of physical and emotional abuse in our home so the safest times were when people were around because then our parents behaved like Ward and June Cleaver. Ha! 

Getting to my point, I don't understand continually describing people by what goes on between their legs. I think it does a disservice when someone's primary descriptor is their sexuality, whether that outlook originates with them or with others. Everyone is a citizen, neighbor, friend, teacher, student, etc and how they fill those roles matters much more, overall, than who they get physical with. The most important sexual organ is between your ears and I'm good with that.

If you water and mow your lawn and pick up after your dog when you walk him in our neighborhood, you and I are going to get along just fine; who you sleep with doesn't enter the equation. If you teach your kid that it's OK to bully my kid at school, or to shoplift in my store, who you sleep with is going to remain the least of my concerns; I'm going to jump you on your non-sexual morals. 

If that makes sense. I hope I haven't stepped on any toes. 

Edited November 11, 2020 by suomi
typo

[Kohola3]

30 minutes ago, suomi said:

If that makes sense. I hope I haven't stepped on any toes. 

Not at all. I wholeheartedly concur.  To me it's how you treat others and what you do to make the world a better place that make you who you are. I don't care a whit about the rest.

[iwantcookies]

13 hours ago, Meowwww said:

I have an air fryer, not the new toaster-oven type but the big black tub type. 
I rarely use it.  My issue is that when making food in it, it stinks. It blows the stinky air into the house. The smell isn’t “yummy food being made”, it’s “phew that food stinks, just smells off”.  
The only thing I make in it anymore is frozen tortellini, it gets crispy and is good dunked into sauce.  But even that stinks when cooking.  

I returned one because it stunk of burning plastic. I’m staying away from that brand. I just got a big air fryer. It’s soooooo nice. I’m going to try to bake in it.  I know I have 2 but I’m going to pack the little one away. 

Edited November 12, 2020 by iwantcookies

[suomi]

During the '70s I read two novels, Top of the World (1950) and Back to the Top of the World (1973), by Hans Reusch. They are among my best reads, ever. From the beginning of time Eskimos called themselves The People because they didn't know anyone else existed. Their sled runners were (and perhaps still are) made of caribou ribs (with meat still attached) so if they get stranded somewhere they can eat. One guy who was stranded somehow lost his tool kit during his ordeal and found himself without a knife. He had a rifle so he could kill something but he needed a knife so he could slit it open and climb inside its hide to survive. So he pooped and quickly, before it froze solid, shaped his poop like a knife. When it froze solid he had the tool that saved his life. How the other half lives, right?

[Some cool photos at link]

In the Arctic, Reindeer Are Sustenance and a Sacred Presence

For the Indigenous communities who herd the animals, safeguarding dying culinary traditions isn’t merely about eating but about protecting a longstanding way of life.

In Northern Sami (Saami in Finnish), a language spoken in the uppermost reaches of Norway, Sweden and Finland, eallu is a herd, or more precisely, the herd - of reindeer, always, on whose lives the speakers depend. Between 400 and 500 words may be used to single out each animal within the herd, by coloring, girth, stance, stage of life, branching pattern of antlers, even temperament, from the truculent female who resists the rope (njirru) to the plodder whose hooves hardly leave the ground (slohtur) to the one that keeps its own counsel, hovering at the fringes (ravdaboazu). That this is poetic is incidental; it is knowledge first, essential to survive.

There are 29 Indigenous peoples, the Sami among them, who have herded reindeer, many for centuries. Although the verb puts humans in the position of authority, to herd is in many ways to submit: to accept the dictates of the animals. “We follow them; they don’t follow us,” said Anders Oskal, the 47-year-old secretary-general of the Association of World Reindeer Herders (WRH), based in Guovdageaidnu, a small Sami village in Norway.

Some herders follow the reindeer across the treeless tundra, where the subsurface of the soil stays frozen all year, and others through the taiga, thousands of miles of marshy primeval forest just south of the Arctic Circle (66 degrees, 34 minutes north), host to bitter winters and some of the lowest temperatures on Earth. These include a reported drop to minus 89.9 degrees Fahrenheit in 1933 in Oymyakon in eastern Siberia, where the Eveny tend their snow-dusted herds - a depth of cold that the British writer Sara Wheeler memorably described in “The Magnetic North” (2009) as “a level at which trees exploded with a sound like gunfire and exhaled breath falls to the ground in a tinkle of crystals.”

If one of the precepts of sustainability is wasting as little as possible, few animals have been honored so completely, and for so long, as the reindeer. Its bones litter campsites from 12,000 years ago along the river Seine, just south of Paris. It’s built for the cold, warmed by a thick undercoat and outer hairs like hollow tubes that trap air and keep it buoyant swimming across icy lakes and rivers. When the pastures are snowed under and seemingly barren, it uses its hooves to unearth buried lichen, herbs and grasses. In the tundra and the taiga, its fur and skin are sewed into clothes, blankets and tents, with its sinews as stitching, and its antlers are honed into sheaths for knives. (Taiga herders do not eat their domesticated reindeer except in times of extremity, but they do milk and ride them, and hunt their wild counterparts.)

Even today, for many herders, reindeer is the daily meal. Its stomach, washed and inverted, may become a pot for cooking or a storage vessel for preserving meat and brackets of vertebrae. Its milk is soured for yogurt and cheese. The meat is lean and as mild as veal, clean and delicate, tasting of pastures and mountain springs. It might be flash-frozen raw and shaved fine, barely melting in the mouth; or hung to dry, smoked, fried, baked in embers or boiled with little more than salt, rye flour, and a crumble of dried, tart cloudberries in shades of orange and red, bearing precious vitamin C. 

Almost every part of the animal is eaten, not just the great tenderloins but the creamy thymus, the trachea cut in rings, the hooves simmered until they leach jelly, the eyes submerged in soup, the mineral-rich blood reserved for sausages and pancakes and as a dip for raw meat, or drunk warm after a fresh slaughter. To the Nenets, who live on the West Siberian Plain, the heart is revered and must never be cut against the grain or eaten raw. One rule is universal: No one eats the tip of the tongue; the Sami believe it will make you lie.

At one in the afternoon in late September, the sky was pale over Guovdageaidnu, at 69 degrees north. Oskal carried his laptop to the window of his office to show me the view, all the way in New York.

The leaves have fallen, he told me. Each night the sun is quicker to bed. But when I asked him when it would stop rising entirely, when the day-less days would begin, he furrowed his brow and for a moment couldn’t remember, despite having spent his entire life above the Arctic Circle. December? January? “We just live it,” he said. He tapped the top of his wrist, which was bare. We think of time differently here, he explained: “Time is not passing. Time is coming.” When you work with the herd, you don’t look at your watch. You work until you are finished.

Three years ago, just before the reindeer spring migration, he and his colleagues filed a 161-page report on food security and sovereignty with the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum established in 1996 to address issues of environmental change, whose members include representatives from native peoples and the eight nations with borders that extend above the northern tree line: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States. 

The report, titled “Eallu: Indigenous Youth, Arctic Change and Food Culture - Food, Knowledge and How We Have Thrived on the Margins,” was in fact a cookbook - a compendium of oral recipes recorded by young people from the tundra and the taiga, in consultation with their elders, as part of a larger project to protect and revive ancient traditions. Formal policy recommendations shared the pages with tips on preserving reindeer meat in buckets of salt and snow and the difference in cooking times for walrus (long) and bearded seal (short).

A diligent reader could learn to prepare seal intestine, preferably from a young seal (“not as stringy”), braided and stuffed with fat, heart, kidney or lungs, and eaten cold with mustard - or, better, hot, when “it almost tastes like corned beef,” advises Lucy Kenezuroff, an Aleut born in 1930 in the Alaska Territory. For a reindeer version of the Russian dish kholodets, the Sami of the Kola Peninsula simmer hooves and tongues for much of a day, then shred the meat and ladle the broth over it to cool and thicken into jelly. 

A year later “Eallu” won the top prize, Best Book of the Year, at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, administered by the Madrid-based Gourmand International. More than 10,000 cookbooks from 216 countries had been submitted for consideration; “Eallu,” which had never been formally published, was up against clothbound volumes from the likes of a chef of a three-Michelin-star restaurant in France. At the outdoor ceremony in Yantai in eastern China, Oskal and nine colleagues, including five teenage contributors, lined up onstage, stunned. Taking the microphone, Oskal said, “The food traditions of Arctic Indigenous peoples are probably among the least explored in world cuisine.”

How does a culture on the world’s periphery survive? “We could all turn around, leave this ancient civilization behind,” Oskal said. “Or we could stay in the tent and close our eyes.” Neither is a solution: “We have to do something in between.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/t-magazine/reindeer-arctic-food.html?action=click&module=Features&pgtype=Homepage

This guy sounds like my Finnish grampa and uncles. My dad talked like this for a few days each time he returned from a vacation in Finland. (He spoke only Finnish until he was 6 years old). I realize how spoiled and lazy I am when I'm around people like this for about, oh, 5 minutes.

 

[Yeah No]

16 hours ago, suomi said:

I have a foot in two worlds because I see the equality of questionfear's and kohola's posts.

I am very fortunate because my parents were open-minded enough to make up for how prejudiced my grandparents were. While we were growing up we spent more waking hours with our grandparents than our parents. As much as we loved them we were pretty young when we realized that we were appalled by the views our grandparents held, and taught to us. By grace alone, our young minds instinctively knew to reject the slurs and labels they thrived on. Looking back, I can see that their world was changing and they were being left behind. They were no longer top dog, and it had never occurred to them that it wouldn't last forever. I don't excuse them but I understand their motives.

On the other hand, my home with my parents during the '50s and '60s was like the United Nations flying the Rainbow Flag. It never occurred to us kids to categorize someone by their color or religion. We judged our parent's friends on friendliness, sense of humor, manners, did they help clear the table and clean the kitchen (which were our jobs). We didn't pick up on the sexuality thing until we were older but after we did it still was no big deal.

The dichotomy is that there was a lot of physical and emotional abuse in our home so the safest times were when people were around because then our parents behaved like Ward and June Cleaver. Ha! 

Getting to my point, I don't understand continually describing people by what goes on between their legs. I think it does a disservice when someone's primary descriptor is their sexuality, whether that outlook originates with them or with others. Everyone is a citizen, neighbor, friend, teacher, student, etc and how they fill those roles matters much more, overall, than who they get physical with. The most important sexual organ is between your ears and I'm good with that.

If you water and mow your lawn and pick up after your dog when you walk him in our neighborhood, you and I are going to get along just fine; who you sleep with doesn't enter the equation. If you teach your kid that it's OK to bully my kid at school, or to shoplift in my store, who you sleep with is going to remain the least of my concerns; I'm going to jump you on your non-sexual morals. 

If that makes sense. I hope I haven't stepped on any toes. 

I also grew up in a home and a school that was like the UN rainbow flag.  My parents had gay friends and friends of different races and religions.  This was not unheard of even back 50 years ago in NYC.  They didn't call NYC the "melting pot" for nothing.  I grew up in the Episcopal Church, which is one of the most socially liberal Christian Protestant denominations.  I often went to Greenwich Village back when it was one of the only places that had a Gay Pride parade every year.  On weekends it was like a mini-Gay Pride event every week.  I "got" why they needed to do this and supported it.

But other than that, like you, I don't favor people continually describing themselves by how they identify themselves, what they do in their bedrooms, and with whom.  I don't mind it in the context of events to raise consciousness or celebrations of the freedom to be open about themselves, like the pride parades.  It's when the constant labeling spills over into every part of life.  I think doing that only fosters feeling "different" from other groups and actually perpetuates marginalization.  If we are going to help people accept others regardless of what labels can be put on them (of any kind) continuing to wear labels to distinguish yourself from people different from you isn't going to help those people find common ground with you and accept you.   IMO, it often only alienates them even if other ways of handling it wouldn't.  And like you, I hope that makes sense and doesn't offend anyone.

P.S.  Sorry to hear about the abusiveness in your home growing up - I was fortunate enough not to have that at all - my sympathies.

[iwantcookies]

Last air fryer comment

Walmart has one for $49. Gourmia 8 quart

Thats the one I bought 

 

 

[Teafortwo]

@suomi Thank you for posting about the Saami! That is so beautiful. One of the things I love most about this board: learning about places and people I wouldn't have known about otherwise. I recommend watching the video; it's wonderful!

[Kohola3]

14 hours ago, suomi said:

This guy sounds like my Finnish grampa and uncles. My dad talked like this for a few days each time he returned from a vacation in Finland. (He spoke only Finnish until he was 6 years old).

I love his accent.  What a wonderful little film.

In MI there is a reindeer farm an hour or so from me.  They raise reindeer for holiday appearances and the deer are totally tame.  The owners just dote on each and every one but are finding that climate change has had consequences for them here.  Warmer winters are allowing pathogens and unwelcome things like worms and ticks to explode.  Intestinal worms can kill a reindeer, especially a young one and the worms are becoming resistant to medications.

[Kath94]

On 10/9/2020 at 10:53 AM, HighlandWarriorGrl said:

This is where I first fell in love with Alan Rickman.  Those eyes, that voice.  SO many people only know him for his role as Professor Snape and that was the not the best showcase of his talents!  How about the villain in Die Hard?  Or the voice of the depressed robot in Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy?  Or my personal favorite, Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility . . . Oh what a great loss.  What a beautiful man, inside and out. 

My vote for sexiest line of any movie, from "Truly, Madly, Deeply:"

- What are you doing?

- Warming my lips.

[Meowwww]

Two things:

Anyone watching The Queen’s Gambit?   I’m hooked. 
 

Also.   I’ve heard it said that we should lockdown for another 4-6 weeks.  I’m confused as I thought we are currently in lockdown?  I get that there are levels of it.  And our state wants to increase restrictions.   I just think that to go back into lockdown, we have to be out of it first?
I understand it’s semantics.  I’m just venting lol. 

[Kohola3]

23 minutes ago, Meowwww said:

’m confused as I thought we are currently in lockdown?  I get that there are levels of it.

In MI, lockdown meant shutting virtually every business down except essential services which included grocery stores, pharmacies, and obviously hospitals. Everything else was shuttered and we were told to shelter in place.  Plus a mask mandate was in effect.  That took us from third highest number of cases in the US to 18th.

We gradually re-opened and people got lax.  Plus a political move that I am not allowed to go into here.  But cases are through the roof right now.  We are already at 75% capacity for ICU beds with cases skyrocketing.

Depends on the state what it all means.

26 minutes ago, Meowwww said:

I’m just venting lol. 

I am beyond livid, that's all I am allowed to say.

[Teafortwo]

25 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

In MI, lockdown meant shutting virtually every business down except essential services which included grocery stores, pharmacies, and obviously hospitals. Everything else was shuttered and we were told to shelter in place.  Plus a mask mandate was in effect.  That took us from third highest number of cases in the US to 18th.

We gradually re-opened and people got lax.  Plus a political move that I am not allowed to go into here.  But cases are through the roof right now.  We are already at 75% capacity for ICU beds with cases skyrocketing.

Depends on the state what it all means.

I am beyond livid, that's all I am allowed to say.

I'm with you both. It's maddening.

[Meowwww]

58 minutes ago, Teafortwo said:

I'm with you both. It's maddening.

Incredibly.  
yet they just announced the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade will be on.  

Edited November 13, 2020 by Meowwww

[Kohola3]

7 minutes ago, Meowwww said:

yet they just announced the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade will be on.  

Absolute insanity.  What has happened to common sense?!?!?

[ginger90]

The parade is going to be virtual. There won’t be any bands, the balloon inflation that normally happens on Wednesday will not take place. There will be previously recorded parts, and participation has been cut by 75%.