A number of you all indicated you loved the stories Alain would tell in his posts and his comments. And before I go any farther, I was in touch with Carol today and what you all wrote in your comments to Cole’s post, as well as mine last night and today really made her load a little lighter.
On the 6th I was texting with Alain – I had asked him about upgrading to a new 4k AppleTV as I’ve been running my old one and as a result was unable to watch my superhero cartoons and movies adapted from comic books in glorious 4K Dolbyvision – and I wanted his opinion on whether it was worth it. Yes, I asked a tech guy who was also a tech gear guy if I should upgrade my tech. Silly me!
After establishing that I should upgrade, which I have done (hence the HDMI cable references yesterday), he asked if I wanted some sourdough starter. Before we go any further, while I love sourdough bread, I don’t eat very much of it because I don’t do well with refined carbohydrates and refined sugar. So I largely avoid bread and all the other things I love that are made of refined carbohydrates and include refined sugar. He lulled me in on the sourdough by asking about a candy store in Tallahassee and then segued into the sourdough. Here’s what happened:
(ETA: When I first entered Alain’s information into my phone, I entered it based on how it sounded when he pronounced his last name or how I thought it sounded, so Chamot wound up as Chailmont – don’t judge, I’m tone deaf…)
Alain Chailmont: Look up Lofty Pursuits or Pd.net. Public displays of confection. I’m so jealous you can drive there.
Adam L Silverman: Ok
Alain Chailmont: Just amazing craft and addictive watching. Candy making.
(Adam here: at this point I’m looking up Lofty Pursuits to try to figure out where they are so I can determine how long it will take me to get there)
Adam L Silverman: Ok. That’s a six hour drive depending on traffic. So I could drive there, but I could also drive to Atlanta
Alain Chailmont: Yeah. But it’s a fuck closer for you than me! lol
Adam L Silverman: Yes, but…
Alain Chailmont: You won’t be stopping by, I dig.
Adam L Silverman: Not any time soon. Also, statewide and county wide shelter in place order
Alain Chailmont: Neither will I. I don’t expect business to take me to Tallahassee Which is why I ordered a week and a half ago from them. Can’t wait to get my order.
Adam L Silverman: Gotcha. Enjoy! Time for me to walk the dogs!
Alain Chailmont: Careful of the ?
Adam L Silverman:
Alain Chailmont: I showed Carol that earlier, she figured some folk would finally listen because that’s a relatable distance. Lol. Any interest in some Sourdough starter? My new batch is almost ready to dry and I’d be happy to send you a sample.
Adam L Silverman: Passover starts this week so no bread and I also can’t tolerate refined carbohydrates, so I generally avoid bread. But I appreciate the offer. I’m sure TaMara would appreciate a batch!
Alain Chailmont: Just for thought – my primary usage is sourdough pancakes. When the starter is cultivated well, they are so complex. The fermented flour is usually easy on digestion for those with issues.
I’ll send her one!
Adam L Silverman: Okay, send me one. I’ll find a use for it
Alain Chailmont: Shall do. Hott Stuff Sourdough is my brand ? it’ll await your efforts indefinitely as long as you keep it dry and in the dark.
Adam L Silverman: Not a problem. Thanks!
By now you’ve noticed that 1) I didn’t actually want any sourdough starter, but…, 2) I threw both Passover and TaMara at him as a distraction, neither of which worked, and 3) when that didn’t work I gave in. What you can’t see in those texts is that I gave in because I could feel through the texts that I wasn’t being a good friend. That the sourdough starter was important to him, so I’d take some and find a use for it because that would make him happy. And because it was an easy thing to do to make him happy. And it did make him happy.
Two days later, feeling the need to extract a bit of payment for knuckling on the sourdough starter, I had this conversation with Alain:
Adam L Silverman: You got Popehat in trouble
Wife: what's that
Me: nothing
Wife: it's something. What's in the jar?
Me: nothing, nothing, just an empty jar
Wife: what is that in there?
Me: meth. I have a meth habit
Wife: no you don't. It's — oh my god. Is that sourdough starter? really?
Me: NO I SWEAR, IT'S A JAR OF PORN— TOTALAUTHORITYHat (@Popehat) April 8, 2020
Alain Chailmont: Haha lol
Adam L Silverman: Do we need to schedule an intervention?
Trying to bake some #bread during your #quarantine? San Francisco neighbors are sharing their treasured #sourdough starter by pinning them to telephone poles. See a map of where you can find a starter closest to you. –> https://t.co/vBhKde2dvM
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) April 7, 2020
Alain Chailmont: I. Am. So. Cool. For once.
Adam L Silverman: Don’t let it go to your head
The next day, while kibbitzing about Passover seders, or in my case the lack thereof, Alain returned to sourdough starter:
Alain Chailmont: My new batch dries tomorrow and so i begin shipping again Saturday lol
Adam L Silverman: Just so you know, you can’t sell that stuff within 500 feet of a school or a playground!
And that’s my Alain sourdough story. I didn’t want any, I could feel through the texts on my phone that not wanting any was upsetting him, so I said I’d take some. I’m sure there’s a packet en route in the mail, and I’m going to put it to damn good use in his memory!
By the way, Gretchen Koch an amazing graphic artist with a PhD in religion, she did this on the fly for Popehat:
Open thread!
PS – I’ve got a baking/confecting post I’ll put up tomorrow night. I made chocolate coated peanut butter truffles earlier sweetened only with agave. They’re setting up right now in the fridge.
TaMara (HFG)
I’m going to tell you, that his last email to me was about sending me sourdough… and now I’m sad again.
You’re a good friend.
Jerzy Russian
Umm, just out of idle curiosity, where might one get a jar of porn?
Adam L Silverman
@Jerzy Russian: Email Popehat. He’ll know.
MomSense
Now I’m really wishing I had ordered some sourdough starter.
SiubhanDuinne
I was just reading the last 30 or so comments in your thread from last night — the TBogg Unit one. A lot of the comments in that last batch (sorry!) are about sourdough, and even though I’m not a baker* I was toying with the idea of obtaining some starter, partly because it might be interesting, partly in Alain’s memory, and partly because I’m trying to work out a short story plot in which sourdough starter is a key ingredient (sorry again) and I thought it would be good to know something about how it behaves before I begin writing.
Thanks for sharing your recent email exchanges. I love the way Alain always wanted to share his enthusiasms. Oh, and that Popehat dialogue is hilarious, as is the graphic novel version.
(Edited because I was doing too much toying in one sentence.)
Adam L Silverman
@MomSense: Let me see what is possible that doesn’t involve bothering Carol. If we can find a way to get you some, we will.
MagdaInBlack
Kindness, Adam. Its so easy ☺
You have such a good heart ?
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne:
Apparently it behaves just like porn!
pat
Wait, I thought it was Alain Chamot. Where did this Chailmont come from?
Jerzy Russian
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks.
I presume the sourdough starter arrives in a plain, brown wrapper.
Adam L Silverman
@pat: I entered it wrong on my phone at some point when I was trying to spell it based on how he pronounced it and never changed it.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: I was going to ask the same thing, but hesitated in how to phrase it without sounding like a dick.
pat
@Adam L Silverman:
Ah, OK. I read his mother’s obit and I’m pretty sure it was Chamot.
BTW, his mother was a terribly busy woman. I wonder how that affected his life.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: No worries. I put an update up top explaining it.
pat
@Adam L Silverman:
And as a really old person who does not even know how to text, I can not understand how anyone can type anything on a phone!
debbie
There is no greater force in the Universe than Guilt!
Adam L Silverman
@pat: They were very close.
Adam L Silverman
@pat: On my phone and iPad I type with my thumbs. If I’m at the laptop, then I just type normally.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Especially if the guy feeling guilty is Jewish…//
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
Or meth!
Mai naem mobile
When I saw the header yesterday my initial thought was that it was the other Alain who is a commenter because my brain couldn’t quite comprehend it was the OTR Alain. For some reason I thought it Alain was a lot younger – like in his early 30s young. He’s gone way too young regardless. 2020 can’t end fast enough. This is turning out to be just a horrible horrible year.
Nicole
That was delightful; his enthusiasm comes shining through. And I’m glad you said yes to the sourdough. A friend of mine once brought me a piece of her aloe plant- I did not want- but I took it so as not to hurt her feelings. She died unexpectedly two years later, and now, ten years after that, I still have the aloe plant. I named it Barbara, after her.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: True.
Miss Bianca
Oh, Adam, you have me laughing and crying, DAMMIT!
I got my own sourdough thang going on the the Mountain Hacienda, yes or no: do I need Alain’s
ETA: I never got to say to you last night how sad I was to hear of Alain’s passing, and how beautiful I thought your tribute was.
MomSense
@Adam L Silverman:
Thank you!!
prostratedragon
First zucchini, and now this.
dmsilev
If people in San Francisco are nailing their starters to posts, they must be using rather stiffer recipes than most of the rest of us.
Also, Alain was very right about sourdough pancakes. Very tasty.
Wag
I’ve been processing Alain’s death in the back of my mind all day. His OTR series was such a great way to pull together the BJ community. Disparate interests celebrated nearly every day. What a great way to start the day for an introvert like me. Sharing my photos, and the excellent feedback from everyone is a gift that Alain gave us all. I’ve never met another juicer face to face (that I know of), but feel a kinship with my fellow photographers thanks to OTR. I’m glad that Watergirl has committed to continuing Alain’s gift to all of us
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: Thanks for the kind words.
My understanding is that his store is no longer up. What we’re going to have to figure out is if someone who ordered some from him and received it, is willing to get it going and then dry out batches so those that hadn’t ordered can get some. I don’t know if this is possible, but I’ll confab with TaMara tomorrow as she’s likely to have some ideas and then I’ll go from there.
Adam L Silverman
@Mai naem mobile: I understand. It is surreal even though I know it is, unfortunately, very, very real.
emrys
What a lovely series of exchanges. I didn’t realize Lofty Pursuits was so well known – about 3 miles down the road from me.
StringOnAStick
Thanks for sharing this with us. We should all be the sort of person who inspires loving stories, just as Alain does.
As for sweeteners, agave is like 90% fructose, so a bit tough on the liver. Try coconut nectar or monkfruit for sweeteners, lower glycemic index.
Achrachno
Thank you Adam
ThresherK
It’s great to be at ground zero for one of these memes.
Roger Moore
If your primary reason for not wanting sourdough starter is a desire to avoid refined carbohydrates, you could always try making a whole wheat or whole rye sourdough. It works just fine. In fact, rye works better with sourdough than with packaged yeast; the acid makes it work better.
VeniceRiley
This is the first I’m reading of this as I’ve taken some days off the juice! I don’t even know what happened, not when; but I can feel the friendship in the telling. It’s a beautiful thing.
An update on me: Still working (above one of our clinics) and get a quiz and a temp check every day at the entrance. Future spouse spent half the day in the suspected covid isolation section of her prison. She gets promoted near the end of the month to a Governor and I will be so relieved at that point!
Got my stimulus so if there is some link for Alain I would be happy to put some of my donations there.
Adam L Silverman
@Roger Moore: Good to know. I’ll give it a try.
Olivia
This just makes my heart hurt. I was going to have him send me his starter but I am not really fond of sourdough bread. However, it made me think about homemade bread and I decided to start making bread again after many years of not. I started a bucket of no mix bread dough and not long after that I saw John’s post on Twitter about Alain passing. I wish now I would have asked him to send me the starter. Maybe I would have loved his version of sourdough.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
This. Also, apparently spelt flour is often easier to digest if gluten is not one’s issue with wheat/grains.
NotoriousJRT
Thanks, Adam.
Laura Too
Adam, you have a gift for capturing the essence of a person perfectly. You are a good man. I bought some of the sourdough when Alain put up his post. It hasn’t arrived yet but when it does I would be happy to share once I get it going. I have tried before and had a bit of success but then it gets cold here and it goes to hell. Ditto my kombucha which was really good and I had such fun with playing with it. I may be inspired to try that again as well now that (fingers crossed) it will get warm here. Anyway, thank you Adam. You are loved.
Gretchen Koch
Hey thanks, Adam! Ken tweets out exchanges like this pretty regularly and I always love them but when I saw “NO I SWEAR IT’S A JAR OF PORN” I knew I had to cartoonify it. I don’t know think most people know what Ken or Katrina look like and making them animals anyway was funnier (IMO). The bear was a random choice except that I got a sudden image in my head of him hugging the jar like Winnie the Pooh would a jar of honey, and that clinched it.
I work full time (not as a cartoonist) so I can’t do this very often, but it’s so great to see the response when I do. Also recently illustrated an Alexandra Petri article and she loved it, which made me really happy.
Mike in Oly
I bought his sourdough starter the day before he passed. No idea if the order went out or not.
And how did I not know that Adam was Popehat?!?!
Mom Says I*m Handsome
I bought Alain’s starter a couple of weeks ago on EBay, and reconstituted it the day after it arrived. The starter came with an Alainesque sheet of instructions (encouraging, enthusiastic, a tiny bit hyperbolic), which I’ve been following to the letter. On Day 4 it started separating, pushing a sour-smelling liquid to the top, and I thought, “That’s promising! I should ask Alain when it’ll start to expand aggressively.” Then I logged into BJ and read of his passing.
So I continue to nurture Alain’s “Hott Stuff” sourdough starter, now as a tribute to his life and to his joie de vivre. Like a kombucha scoby this starter can continue to produce miracles long after its originator has gone. Chin chin, Alain.
Adam L Silverman
@Gretchen Koch: You are quite welcome. His feed is always a hoot and your comic was spot on.
Feel free to email me if you’d like and we can play compare the religious studies professors. I was the first graduate from FIU’s then brand new masters in religious studies program. Nathan Katz, Chris Gudorf, and Lesley Northup were my advisors and/or supervisors, though I also did some work with Terry Rey after we hired him. They took great care of me despite knowing I wasn’t staying in religious studies; that I just needed the subject matter expertise so I could more properly and accurately work in my actual area of interest: low intensity war and warfare.
And thanks again for both the great comic and for checking in here with more context!
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in Oly: I’m not Popehat. Popehat is Ken White a former Federal prosecutor, now a partner in a law firm working on, among other things, criminal and civil defense.
Blue Galangal
I was going to email Alain and thank him when I logged on and saw the news. I just got my (2nd) order of Hott Stuff, because the post office “lost” the last one. (I think a postal worker took it and to them I say: well done! carpe diem! Back when I was looking for a starter I probably would have done the same.)
There are many others as expert or more than me at sourdough but I’m happy to share any experience/ideas with any of you.
Blue Galangal
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: You’re ahead of me – I haven’t reconstituted yet. We should keep in touch!
Mike in Oly
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, sorry. i completely misunderstood that part of your post then. It’s been a long day…
Bill
@MomSense: I’ve got some of Alain’s starter coming up to speed. I’ll make sure that you get some.
Bill
Hey all. I received some starter this week, and I’m just starting to feed it regularly. Once it’s up to speed, I’ll be happy to send some to anyone that wants it.
Adam, if you have a minute I have a few questions with which you could perhaps help me. Thanks