I’ve been watching reruns of the Great British Bake-Off. A lot. It calms me. The contestants are such good sports! They congratulate, encourage and even help one another. The show lacks the cut-throat character of American cooking competitions — in a good way. A recent viewing inspired me to make this classic Victoria sandwich cake:
As someone pointed out on Twitter, the buttercream icing piped on top of the strawberry jam looks a bit like teeth, but I am happy to report that the icing isn’t grainy! Sifting the confectioner’s sugar really does make a difference. The cake is possibly a little overdone (sides are darker than intended), but I won’t know for sure until I slice into it later.
What are y’all doing to amuse yourselves today?
Mnemosyne
We love that show. If you haven’t gotten to the season with Nadia yet, I envy you.
G and I have been known to turn to each other at random and announce “It’s oonderbaked!” Paul Hollywood-style.
Lapassionara
This looks wonderful, Betty. Please report the results later, after you have had a taste.
Elizabelle
That’s a beautiful cake. Would look even better next to a butter lamb. Like the sailing chart underneath.
Happy Sunday to all.
Tenar Arha
Got sucked into TCM’s broadcast of Lawrence of Arabia instead of my walk. It’s the contrasting scenes where he reaches the Suez Canal after crossing the desert to deliver the news he & the tribes he contacted have taken Aqaba. Then he walks into the Officer’s Club & causes a scene as he tries to get some lemonade for him & the one survivor of the two youngsters he set out with, & then trembling reports the news to Allenby. Gets me every time.
ETA & now I want cake
germy
Tracey Ullman – Great British Bake Off Armageddon
The Great British Boiled Egg – Tracey Ullman’s Show
debbie
Beautiful cake!
My local PBS station upgraded their antenna and botched it up. Most of us on antenna can’t get the station now. They say they’re working to fix it, but between missing reruns of GBBO (I can watch them a million times) and the new season of Call the Midwife, I’m approaching the shaking-my-fist-at-the-sky stage of depravation.
dmsilev
@Tenar Arha: That’s a great film. Have you ever had the chance to see it on a really big cinema screen? Absolutely amazing.
germy
SIMSBURY, Conn. (AP) – The nation’s top infectious disease specialist is getting a plush doll made in his likeness.
Simsbury-based New England Toy, which makes custom plush bears and other toys, has created a 12-inch version of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has often appeared with President Trump at media briefings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The doll sells for $25 and the company says $5 from each sale will go to a COVID-19 charity.
geg6
I love that show!
I am binging Sex and the City from episode 1. I loved that show back the day and it’s still fun, though some things make me cringe today. It definitely captures a time of my life in the 90s.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I can just see that cake opening its mouth and saying “Feeeeed me, Betty….”
I would heroically step in and eat that entire cake in about seven minutes.
James E Powell
I’m doing research into the British Invasion. We can date its start to February 9, 1964, when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan – or maybe to one week earlier when “I Want to Hold Your Hand” hit No. 1, but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on when it ended. And by ended, I don’t mean that there weren’t any more artists or bands from the UK coming to the US, but that the tidal wave – for so it seemed – abated to a more equal, back & forth exchange.
There are enough people “of a certain” age here. Do you remember those times? When did the British Invasion end?
thebewilderness
Cake strips are the answer to dark edges and domed layers, They are practically magical science. Before you make or buy them try it out with a wet paper towel wrapped in a strip of foil and secured around the outside of the cake tin.
It slows the cooking speed of the edges and gives a more even raise and uniform color.
Your cake looks delish and I love that it looks like teeth!
Betty Cracker
@Tenar Arha: That’s my husband’s favorite movie ever. Definitely the most visually stunning movie I’ve ever seen.
germy
@James E Powell: I would say 1968
What do you think?
ziggy
I’ve got to start watching that. My husband wants me to do something besides study coronavirus reports, so he’d probably sit through it.
I’m building a better gate to try and keep my little devil dog from getting out of the yard. A constant battle.
greenergood
@Tenar Arha:
@dmsilev: when I was in high school, MANY moons ago, Lawrence of Arabia was re-released in big-screen cinemas. I was fascinated by LofA, so cut school and went to the movies. I LOVED it! Then dragged all my high school girlfriends (went to a Catholic all-girls’ school) to see it, and they were so pissed off with me for wasting 3 1/2 hours of their lives. Don’t care – still love it, 40+ years later – though now bridle at the colonialism. It’s a bit like watching Gone with the Wind – it’s an amazing film, but you look through your fingers a lot of the time. Brits and Americans are so good at exceptionalism – and look where it’s got us … i.e. no virus gonna bother ME – sheesh
zhena gogolia
@James E Powell:
I date it to when Strangers in the Night bumped the Beatles from the #1 position in the charts. I was righteously indignant
ETA: i.e., 1966
Catherine D.
@greenergood: Noel Coward said if Peter O’Toole were any prettier, the movie would have to be called Florence of Arabia.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: February 1815, when the Treaty of Ghent was ratified by the US.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
And you are probably right, but for me the horrible Frank Sinatra song (“scooby-dooby-doo”) reaching #1 was my first inkling that the Beatles weren’t going to go on writing fabulous song after fabulous song forever and ever, amen.
realbtl
@James E Powell: June 1967, Monterrey Pop Festival. The Brits still came over but things had shifted.
evodevo
@debbie: That happened to us…our older model kitchen TV is NOT hooked up to the satellite feed, but to our outdoor antenna, and when the stations went digital, we started having problems, even though we got a box…it suddenly got a LOT worse a year ago, such that the programs were pixelating a LOT of the time. They kept telling us our antenna was too “weak” or something (and we spent several hours on the roof poking at the stupid thing), but a couple months ago my husband tweaked the TV (now he can’t remember what he did!!!), and the signal comes in just fine now! I can’t tell you any more, since electronics are NOT my thing, but all he did was adjust something on the TV and it cleared up. Maybe someone with more knowhow than me can help out…
dmsilev
@greenergood: My mom dragged my brother and I to go see it in re-release, probably around 1990 or so. I was in high school; he would have been 8th grade or thereabouts. We went to what was at the time one of the biggest screens in the Boston area (the Charles cinema, for the long-time Bostonians) and it was absolutely amazing. I’ve seen it on the big screen a couple of times since then.
Emerald
I cannot get my sis to watch GBBO. She thinks it’s a cooking show.
What can ya do?
LuciaMia
Love it too. Wish a new season was starting soon.
low-tech cyclist
Mowed the lawn, got the kid to get out the blower and clean the driveway and the walks, did some laundry, and I’m contemplating a bike ride.
p.a.
Yardsat reading Shelly’s Frankenstein (not my cup o’ tea but a gift so I will persist) drinking a half-growler of white stout and annoying birds by playing calls over a bluetooth speaker. Whitethroat sparrows and house finches were the only responders. After lunch (baked potato & kimchi; no reason why) may play some wallball with the only crosse I have that doesn’t need restringing.
Mnemosyne
@greenergood:
FWIW, Lean intends you to bridle at the colonialism. It’s pretty much the opposite of a triumphal white dudes fixed this! movie by the time you get to the end.
debbie
@James E Powell:
There was a British invasion of a type in the early 1980s when Brideshead Revisited was released.
I think it ebbs and flows rather than starts and stops
(I assume you’re not referring exclusively to popular music.)
gene108
I bought a new printer. My old one mechanically still works, but it is old, and doesn’t have updates to make it compatible with new computer.
I don’t remember, when I bought it. But it’s at least 12 years old. Probably closer to 15 years old.
I am waiting a couple of days to take the new one out of the box.
It’s a tankless ink printer, so I’ll see how well it works, and how much it cuts down on buying toner cartridges
LuciaMia
Will & Grace marathon on Cozi TV. Saw the second episode of season one. Jack’s character seems relatively subdued.
*********
Gotta bestir myself soon, wanna do some sketching outside while the sun shines.
JoyceH
OMG, Lawrence of Arabia! Best movie ever made, best screenplay ever written. Can still recite huge chunks of dialog. (Auda: You will cross the Sinai? Lawrence: Moses did. Auda: You will take the children?! Lawrence: Moses did. Auda (exasperated): Moses was a prophet, and beloved of God!)
I’ve got to rewatch that. Greenergood, the re-release that you remember was the ‘director’s cut’, which started the fad of director’s cuts, and the only movie that really deserved one. Stephen Spielberg came across some of the cut bits in a studio vault, thought, ‘hey, this is some great stuff here’, and the rest is history.
As for what I’m doing, the only baking that’s in my skill set is making stuff with Bisquick, so I’ve been doing that. Sloooowly getting Book 5 of Regency Mage going again. Doing some biking and pedaling, determined to come out of quarantine stronger and fitter than I went in, since I really let myself deteriorate last year. And training my dog to use the ‘flirt stick’, which is like a big cat teaser and is great for dog exercise.
MattF
If you’re really interested in wasting time, I suggest Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzles. A collection of about 40 little puzzles, compiled for various platforms. I don’t want to think about how much time I’ve wasted on them.
Immanentize
@James E Powell:
Did the British invasion ever end? If it did, it picked back up in the late ’70s with punk….
But if I had to pull a moment out of my hat, it would probably be when Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band came out in 1967 and music took a decided psychedelic turn. Yes it is a Beatles album, but by then the eponymous, The Doors, had come out (January) and The “Velvet Underground and Nico” (March). I’d say that musical tastes had decided against the “invasion” sound by 1967.
Feathers
In looking up Waldemar Januszczak art documentaries for the best of Prime thread, I discovered there was one which had previously only been on a pay a bit extra channel, Dark Ages: An Age of Light. Have been enjoying it very much. The first episode was about Christian art of the first millennia. Jesus was depicted as young, handsome and boyish, modeled on classical statues of Apollo, not the dark and tortured figure of medieval art. If you are looking for something diverting and educational, all of his docs are recommended, especially the ones on Islamic art.
For baking, this no dairy olive oil lemon tart from America’s Test Kitchen showed up in my YouTube feed and I think I’ll try it: https://youtu.be/s7FMdH47jhs I’ve done olive oil crusts for savory tarts before, especially in the summer, but not sweet. I’m due for a grocery store trip early this week and I think I’ll grab as many lemons as I can without verging on hoarding. I’m eating rice bowls with veg and beans and want lemon vinaigrette.
debbie
@evodevo:
Thanks, hopefully that’ll work for me too.
Immanentize
@Tenar Arha: my favorite part:
Sherif Ali: You are drifting.
Lawrence: I was just thinking.
Sarif Ali: You were drifting.
My wife and I would use that exchange when one of us got vague.
Emerald
@James E Powell: ’69 when the Beatles broke up. They were the British Invasion. Everybody else came through in their wake.
LuciaMia
I remember the Mad Magazine parody of it. In one scene of Lawrence striding on top of the wrecked train someone asks, “Who does he think he is…Fred Astaire?” Some one replies, “No, Ginger Rogers.”
Tdjr
@germy: Hysterical!! I love Tracy Ullman!
FelonyGovt
We love the Great British Baking Show. I would like it even more if my husband didn’t ask me, every single time I baked everything, even muffins, whether I had “proved” it long enough. He thinks that’s hilarious.
Doing some back yard cleanup, watering, weeding. I’m so happy to get out of the house I’m even enjoying it.
JoyceH
@LuciaMia: He did love that outfit, didn’t he? One thing the movie never bothered to explain was how Lawrence already knew the language and the territory. Before the war, he’d been all over that region; he was an archaeologist, one of Leonard Woolley’s bright young men.
Gretchen
My daughter recommends Nailed It, a baking show about people who don’t know how to bake. It has inspired her husband to try baking a cake. I haven’t watched it yet.
OzarkHillbilly
What am I doing to amuse myself today? Gardening.
MattF
You-all can go on about LofA, but Wilfred Theisiger was the genuine article. His books are great reads, but probably unfashionable nowadays…
germy
@Immanentize: I don’t know.
David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Elton John and others were still going strong in the ’70s.
But I think the actual invasion ended in the late ’60s.
It was a two way street. Lots of American rock ‘n roll acts toured the UK in the 1950s, inspiring British youngsters to pick up guitars. Eddie Cochran was killed in a car accident over there during his last tour:
Feathers
One thing about the antennae for the digital TV. I had mine taped up to the wall in a high corner before. Had trouble with the new configuration. Bought a new TV, had the antennae just lying flat on top of my console, waiting to put it back up on the wall. Tested, discovered it now worked perfectly. It is just sitting under the TV.
Note: I have a Roku TV and let it auto-search for the channels. If I have any troubles, I just do a new auto scan and I have always found what I’m looking for. One thing, the PBS channels are in slightly different places. The main PBS shows are on what was the secondary channel, things like that. The Roku picks up the over the air program listings, so I just go by that.
Benw
Noice cake! I’m playing guitar – currently sucking at Whale and Wasp going into Don’t Follow – and working my way through the MCU. I actually missed a lot of Phase 1 and 2 so they’re new. I thought Iron Man, Thor and CA: First Avenger were all really good!
Omnes Omnibus
I have watched Cats. I have two observations and a recommendation. Observation One, Francesca Hayward has more dancing ability in her left shoulder than the rest of the cast combined. Observation Two, Taylor Swift is sexier as a cat cat than she is as a human. Recommendation, stay away, stay far, far away.
donnah
Betty, that cake looks divine! Also, very professional. I hope it’s delicious.
I’ve taken the weekend to work on my hooked rug of Helen Keller. So far, so good!
https://imgur.com/gallery/E5HoPms
Next the lettering, which has to go in before the background.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
What are we doing to amuse ourselves? Great British Bake-Off actually.
It’s been years since we were regular watchers of any kind of TV, and neither of us has ever seen any reality show that I can recall [*]. So we were skeptical, but so many people raved about this show that we decided to give it a try starting with the most recent season. Instantly addicted.
We still don’t have much of an attention span for TV, so we usually sample it in rounds, doing the three rounds from each episode in three separate viewings during the day. We did the 2019 and 2018 seasons and now we’re watching the first season in what Netflix is calling “The Beginnings”, with the original cast on their original channel.
What else? My wife is very heavily occupied with teaching and grading and Zoom meetings, both work and fun. She has quite the Zoom friends and family networks. Multiple networks. And those chats span continents and generations. One of her cousins started a family reunion weekly Zoom and she’s seeing people she hasn’t seen in decades.
I’m doing a lot of home projects that I’ve been largely avoiding. Sorting piles of paper that go back decades (1983 is the current record). That’s a little mysterious since a lot of those papers dated from a previous house. Some of the older ones are TWO moves old. That means I must have packed up the unsorted papers and thrown them unsorted into the moving boxes, then carefully stowed them away, still unsorted, in the new house.
Also doing a lot of reading. I have many books that I’ve picked up in a lifetime of used book stores and I’m always happy to see them on my shelves, they were choices I’m happy with. Yet I never got around to actually reading a lot of them. So I’m determined to catch up on some of that backlog.
Not all of them are in English. I have enough French and Spanish to get started on a novel and have a decent amount of comprehension, but it’s slow enough that I tend to lose momentum about halfway through. Those are all in the queue too.
The one thing I’m not is bored. Quite the opposite.
[*] I lied. After I wrote that I remembered that we’ve seen the Marie Kondo shows on Netflix, we used to watch “Queer Eye”, the original one, and we also used to occasionally catch the Japanese “Iron Chef”. Those were fun but I’m not sure where to find them online (no actual TV in the house).
frosty
@James E Powell: I can’t tell you exactly when it ended but it was at or around the Summer of Love in ‘67. Same time as Sergeant Pepper, which was in no way a British Invasion album.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: The mister and I have an Auda quote we use when we’ve done something self-serving but want to pretend it was magnanimous: “I am a river to my people!”
frosty
As for what I’m doing this afternoon – sitting outside the trailer in the sun in Homolovi State Park (AZ) trying to take pictures of birds and rabbits that I’ve seen around the campground. They’re not cooperating.
emrys
@Betty Cracker: I saw it when it originally came out and did a lot of reading about Lawrence. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it determined the course of my professional career.
Hoodie
@Tenar Arha: One of my earliest dates with my wife of 30 years was to see a restored version of Lawrence in the late ’80s at the old Senator Theater in Baltimore It was transcendent, still can remember the blue of Peter O’Toole’s eyes. Also saw a restored Doctor Zhivago there. Not quite the same experience outside of the big screen
Otherwise today, sent a text to a newspaper friend with some inside dope on a law firm representing one of these phony astroturf “open up” groups. It’s Tea Party II, Electric Bugaloo.
LuciaMia
@Omnes Omnibus: I guess it;s one of those things where its easy to say, after the fact, “Who thought this was a good idea?”
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
I now love the GBBS. Just signed up for a free 30 trial of [email protected] through Prime and watched the 1st season in 3 days. (I had to ration myself. My wife likes it too, that has helped slow me down, I feel I can’t watch anymore after she’s gone to bed.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@emrys: Somewhere around here I have Lawrence’s memoirs, the book that was the basis for the film. One more book (see comment #51) that I’m really glad I bought but that I’ve never actually sat down and read.
As I recall there’s a very sad tale in the introduction, about how Lawrence was carrying his 800-page manuscript in a suitcase and then the suitcase was stolen. So the book is actually the second version of the memoirs, started over from scratch.
germy
Here’s an old tweet from last year, but
PAM Dirac
Just finished my exercises. Mowed the vineyard a bit earlier. Yesterday I bottled the 2019 Cabernet Franc. The bad news is that there is only 9 bottles; it is was supposed to be the second half of an experiment and the first half failed, but in time to not screw up the Cab Franc. The good news is that it is really good. My wife wants to drink it all now. We’ll see if I can hang on to a few bottles long enough to see if it gets better with a little age. In a bit, I’ll grill some chicken. My wife’s request and since not only is she working today, but she is Covid Queen, so she definitely gets her choice of dinner. (Covid Queen is the person designated to do all the isolation patients that day).
AliceBlue
I’m getting ready to bake my favorite chocolate pie, using my mom’s recipe. It’s very chocolatey but not overly sweet.
MCA1
Love the Great British Bakeoff for the same reasons Betty notes. It’s positive and optimistic and uplifting and community building, as opposed to the cutthroat, dismal and binary winners/losers universe put forth on American cooking competitions.
We had a Zoom church confirmation Sunday for our oldest this morning. Not quite how I’d imagined that parenting milestone, but we had blue skies out the windows and the sense of community created even in the virtual service was great. I think she feels good about the resolution even though it’s not the same as having grandparents here and hugs and brunch and all that.
This afternoon going for an 8-9 mile run, training for a virtual half marathon. Was derailed for a couple weeks when the wife tested positive for Corona, but we’re all healthy and free to break quarantine now. I did 8 miles in my driveway three weeks ago but that was unsustainable so I took a week and a half off and now I’m pushing hard to get back to where I should have been about now in the training cycle.
Hoodie
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): My wife and I became addicted to that show. The things we liked about it is that they actually talk about the lives of the participants and it’s surprisingly diverse given that it tends to concentrate on some very traditional British and European baking. Some of the best bakers are the ones that bring Asian and Middle Eastern flavors to more traditional European recipes.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Oh god. How scary, and so glad she’s over it now. Relatively mild symptoms I hope?
Which works out to what, 14 million jogs to the end of the driveway and back? Yeah, I can see how that would get boring.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
Funny — my husband and I just started watching GBBO this afternoon. I like it a lot more than I thought I would.
And now I want cake.
cope
Regarding LOA, just a great, great movie if somewhat loose with some facts. We lived in S.A. for a few years in the 50s and that’s when I came to know him. I’ve read multiple books by him and about him and, in fact, just read “Lawrence in Arabia” in the last 6 months. It does an outstanding job of putting what he did in context regarding what else was going on. I still dream of one day wandering through an antiques shop and stumbling across the bag containing the nearly complete first version of “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” that he lost on a train.
As for current activities, finally learning how to use our ice cream maker. We’re whipping up some Alton Brown chocolate ice cream to which we will add crumbled Thin Mints toward the end and in the next day or two, I will make the 45 minute drive to our daughter’s house and drop it off for them. As for DIY projects, currently I am putting off changing out the filter elements in our pool filter, a tedious, messy chore that I just don’t like to do, so there!
motopilot
My wife loves watching that baking show, too, but has her own recipe to make a double layer coconut cake that is so fluffy in texture that it seems to have been made in the clouds by angels, but the frosting is so tasty and loaded with coconut that it surely was slathered on afterwards by the devil. I know better than to have her make it more often than every few years for my birthday.
Uncle Cosmo
@James E Powell: Forget the British invasion, what about the Batshit Invasion???
(For your Kinky listening pleasure… though unfortunately they stopped before the verse parodied above…:^( )
Mandalay
Needless Markup to file for bankruptcy:
Grab those tasteful $95 Versace socks while you can!
mrmoshpotato
Home waxing ad.
Let the dudes who decided on a face-waxing picture wax their faces first.
PAM Dirac
@PAM Dirac: Covid Queen is the person designated to do all the isolation patients that day
MCA1
@realbtl: I think that’s a great call, if one has to assign a “moment” where American acts regained prominence here. The Beatles still had mindblowing albums to release and their influence would continue forever. And the Stones were still huge. But Hendrix returning from his time in London and scorching at Monterrey, upstaging The Who (notably, the only big British name at Woodstock two years later, I think), was pretty symbolic. Over the next couple of years American artists started retaking the charts from a bunch of different directions, as Motown surged, psychadelic rock flourished, and U.S.-based rock like Hendrix, the Doors, CCR and others started to overtake the various Brits.
Notable also for the Beatles not being there despite being invited, because their music had become so studio oriented it wasn’t really performable in concert anymore. Only 3 years after their first trip to the U.S.! That’s hyperevolution.
mrmoshpotato
I do declare, I am more affected by the marijuana than you, good sir!
EthylEster
What brand strawberry jam or is it homemade? Much of what is in the stores these days seems like corn syrup plus red dye.
Mayim
I’ve been watching the BBC quiz show Pointless. Jeopardy [right anwers] plus inverse Family Feud [closer to zero respondents, the better], with a heavy dose of the civility you see on GBBO. Current season Britbox, older seasons at various videosites.
Also watching (via Amazon prime and other video outlets) Time Team ~ British archaeology with a great cast of characters as regulars.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Baking banana bread and thinking about beer bread. Filling bird feeders and watching the kittens wrestle. May clean out my closets this afternoon as it’s past time. Then back in to work tomorrow. But that’s ok because tomorrow can take care of itself.
Van Buren
Well, it’s not exactly amusing but I am watching a memorial service on zoom. I am impressed with the strength the widow is showing, just getting virtual support. I don’t think I could be a good host if a family member passed away.
trollhattan
@gene108:
If it’s an Epson like ours, the tankless ink consumption, or at least the ink’s dollar consumption, is minuscule compared to disposable cartridges. It has possibly already “paid for itself” in the hundreds of dollars not spent on cartridges. (Still on the original fill.)
My overarching complaint is black is no longer black, but dark gray. And now, about 1.5 years in I’m having an issue with cyan not printing correctly and the on-board maintenance tools aren’t clearing it, so a potential major fault. In sum, excellent concept partly fulfilling the promise. (Related, I’ve never bought a “proper” photo printer because a single complete cartridge set is several hundred dollars.)
Good luck!
dmsilev
So, for baking I decided on an indulgence. Since the local farmer’s market had nice blueberries yesterday, I woke up early this morning and made blueberry muffins following the Jordan Marsh recipe. Which is very very good, but since 12 muffins worth contains two sticks of butter, two eggs, and over a cup of sugar, yeah indulgence. I made half a recipe’s worth, had one as part of breakfast, and the rest are in the freezer so that I don’t just eat them all over the course of a day or two.
MCA1
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes, pretty mild, thank you! She has R.A., so is considered particularly high risk due to the immunosuppressant drugs she regularly takes, which meant she got a test immediately with results in a day. Headaches, some muscle aching, little coughing or shortness of breath, general fatigue. Like a bad, but long lingering cold. We consider ourselves very fotunate, and assume the entire household has some immunity at this point.
It was about 130 “laps,” if you could call them that. Probably looked like an insane person to anyone who walked by. I changed direction, clockwise to counterclockwise, every mile. Did another 3 or 4 miles a few days later, then said “F this. I’m bored.”
Uncle Cosmo
Ain’t that the troof, Roof. First time (of uncountable times) I saw Dr Z was as a HS senior, courtesy of a field trip to the old Mayfair Theatre on Howard St –
where I met my Lara during the intermission, in the row in front of me. (And many years later, there was – is – an unpublished multipart attempt at poetry in my looseleaf titled The Lara Variations. < sigh >)
trollhattan
@James E Powell:
Fun thought experiment. I’m okay with the Beatles signaling its end because they legit kicked it off.
“Tomorrow Never Knows” was the sign-off, unrecognized as such at the time but it had to have boggled teen and preteen minds on first hearing. Thus, my arbitrary bookend is 5 August 1966.
Amir Khalid
After dealing with the messy aftermath of a bout of food poisoning (I offer no details) I have just finished watching Mary Chapin Carpenter’s latest lockdown video. Today’s song is The Things That We Are Made Of. Alas, Angus rhe dog does not play squeaky toy on this one.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Yesterday I learned that there’s such a thing as remote notarization.
One of my years-long backlog of projects was to contact the Master Lock company and get the combos for this pile of combination locks that have been accumulating in a box. So I went to their website and downloaded the form. You have to prove (via photo) that the locks aren’t actually attached to anything and swear that they’re yours. And get it notarized. And there’s the rub.
As I said, it turns out you don’t have to see a notary in person. But now I have to find one who is set up for electronic processing and won’t charge me an arm and a leg. First price I found was $40, probably more than all those locks are worth.
Redshift
@Mnemosyne:
And Rahul! I love that show, even though I rarely bake. I can’t wait until there’s a new series.
Uncle Cosmo
O/t as hell, but – one of my best friends from HS is Finance Manager at The Marsh (SanFran & Berkeley), which like most entertainment venues is sore beset by Life In The Time Of COVID. They seem to have some interesting content online, & yinz might want to check it out. Buy a mug, maybe, become a member, who can say. That URL again is…
EthylEster
@LuciaMia: I went to see that piece o’crap in 1982 not long after it opened on Broadway. I foolishly thought I would learn something interesting about old TS. It was obviously awful from the moment the curtain went up. The music is a special kind of dreck. I had to buy the tickets ($50 each!) for my 3 companions. One ticket had only a partial view, it turned out. By the end, all of us wanted that seat. Bad in an epic way. In what universe does it get made into a movie?
raven
@Tdjr: She plays Betty Friedan in Mrs America which is VERY good despite the protestations here!
tfitz
@Betty Cracker: Once at the grocery store my wife paid cash and handed me the change. At which point I got down on one knee and cried out “Truely the Mem-sahib is a river to her people!” She blushed and the checker giggled. Win-win.
divF
I am prepping for a meeting in about an hour with my former thesis advisor about a project we are working on (we are collaborating for the first time in 40+ years), followed by a meeting with my thesis student about a problem he is having with his research. All meetings via video.
After that, I will be making pork chile verde and a pot of beans for dinner (I’m on PDT, so it is still early). No baked goods, alas.
MomSense
I’m about to go for a walk in the woods with the dog.
I can’t express how frustrating it is to keep discovering broken things. My mom seems to have developed superhuman strength.
raven
I’m told by Lamont Cranston that the cake is on a map that includes Egmont Key!
Beth
@germy: Thanks for the links–hilarious!
Redshift
And yes, one if the best things about GBBO is how the contestants support each other. They’re genuinely happy when another contestant does well, and sorry and comforting when someone fails. American contest and “reality” shows are the opposite of that, which is the reason I never watch them.
mrmoshpotato
@MomSense: What’s broken now?
danielx
Baking bread, courtesy of King Arthur Flour’s recipe:
The Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Bake
Easiest, that is, provided you have a stand mixer which we are fortunate enough to possess. Do yourself a favor and brush whisked egg (yolk and white, one) over the top for awesome crust.
mrmoshpotato
@Redshift: Gordon Ramsey doesn’t crash it and start yelling at everyone that they’re donkeys?
randy khan
Today’s a baking day here as well – Apple tarts and my first attempt at baking bread in decades. (We’ll see how that goes.) Also a laundry day.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Somewhere around that era, I remember a friend of ours who stayed with us for a weekend. She was getting ready to audition for something, I forget what, and spent much of the weekend going through her audition song, which was “Touch Me” from Cats. So I heard it over and over and OVER and OVER and OVER…
Nadya
No soggy bottoms!
germy
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) –
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
Up to then there’d only been
A sort of bargaining,
A wrangle for the ring,
A shame that started at sixteen
And spread to everything.
Then all at once the quarrel sank:
Everyone felt the same,
And every life became
A brilliant breaking of the bank,
A quite unlosable game.
So life was never better than
In nineteen sixty-three
(Though just too late for me) –
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
Philip Larkin
NCSteve
What is this “later” thing of which you speak?
Quiltingfool
I’m doing my usual thing – making a quilt! I finished piecing one of my favorites, Sawtooth Cats, and I just need to finish embroidering their faces. I am now working on another pattern, Bow Tie Cats. I am doing my level best to make a dent in my Christmas fabric! I love Christmas fabric. And Halloween fabric. And purple or green or…I just like fabric, leave it at that!
Here is what Sawtooth Cats looks like – https://pin.it/1WvZofp
Here is a Bow Tie Cats example – https://pin.it/6XHnZ35
Redshift
I’m watching planetarium shows to try to prepare a talk to accompany one of them. I’m on the board of the friends group for our local planetarium, and we’ve gotten permission to present flat-screen versions of planetarium shows while everything is closed, to keep our audience engaged. (Lucky for us, actually, our planetarium was already closed for renovations.)
We want to have science talks to accompany them, so I’m going to try my hand at being an amateur science communicator, which I’ve wanted to do for a while anyway.
danielx
@MCA1:
Ten Years After….
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I got the impression yesterday that you wanted to send a photo for the On the Road tribute tomorrow morning. If you are still interested, are you able to send me a photo and a note by email?
If that’s a problem, you could do a one photo On the Road submission and I could grab the photo and note from there and include it with the rest.
Doc Sardonic
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: For a fun little project to kill time there a lots of YouTube tutorials on how to
break infind out the combination of most Master locks.Sloane Ranger
I have been watching the Great Celebrity Bake Off – Stand Up to Cancer.
It follows the same format as GBBO. There are at least 5 episodes involving various celebrities baking to raise money for cancer charities. One of the celebrities was Richard Dreyfuss.
The fun comes from watching these non-bakers try to find their way round kitchen utensils and the expressions on the Judges faces!
Redshift
@mrmoshpotato: Gordon Ramsey has a British show where he’s pretty nice and caring toward the restauranteurs he’s working with. I think he yells sometimes, but that’s not most of it. That stuff is a performance for the Americans; apparently people who like watching assholes are a bigger audience here. ☹️
satby
I just finished making very nicely scented but completely inedible shampoo bars. Now going to polish off the last slice of chocolate flan cheesecake (don’t ask) and later will make a pan of brownies. Regular, fattening unhealthy brownies, because the healthy high protein ones were only palatable with ice cream, and I used that all up.
And it’s a lovely day, though still a bit cool. Planning on sitting outside a bit. Tried earlier with the dogs but they were just anxious to go back inside for their cookies.
zhena gogolia
@Quiltingfool:
Very cute!
mrmoshpotato
@Redshift: I only know of him being an ass from Aussie dashcam compilations.
His video recipes are really good – and calm. :)
Betty Cracker
@EthylEster: Homemade fresh jam, made with Ina Garten’s recipe.
Mallard FIlmore
@James E Powell: I would put the end of the British Invasion at the rise of progressive rock.
OzarkHillbilly
Ticked Off Vic has a few things he’d like to say.
JoyceH
@Betty Cracker: “The mister and I have an Auda quote we use when we’ve done something self-serving but want to pretend it was magnanimous: “I am a river to my people!””
I know it is greatly disparaged today to have white actors cast as non-white characters, but what could be better than Alec Guinness’ Feisal and Anthony Quinn’s Auda?
Mallard FIlmore
@debbie:
Then there was the Monty Python invasion in 1974 …
Fair Economist
@Gretchen: I didn’t like Nailed It, because it’s about setting up amateur bakers to fail. They give these amateurs ridiculously short working periods to duplicate professional pastry art. And of course they fail hahaarenttheyfunny. Only redeeming feature was baking tips the pros deliver from time to time. Buttering a pan with a butter stick is a nice trick, to a beginner baker like me.
leeleeFL
@germy: I was thinking 1969. That’s when I graduated HS and we were still pretty much into British R&R.
CaseyL
Cuomo’s daily press conferences, which are streamed live and then uploaded to YouTube, have become a regular viewing thing for me. They’re wonderful.
Today he did a great tangent/segue. He started with how happy he is all three of his daughters are back in the house, then mentioned growing up with Sunday Family Dinners and how his grandfather called those days “vacations” because he never stopped working; and from there went on to how that is a typical attitude among immigrants, to how immigrants/POC are the frontline people right now, our most essential workers, and we need to value them. He mixes all these topics to make a point and does it very well.
Other than that: took a long neighborhood walk which included some loop trails though local small parks. A few people about, with kids and dogs, all of us keeping our distance. Going up a street that backs onto a greenbelt, I heard a woodpecker rat-tat-tatting. A woman was near the trees, trying to find the bird. I asked if she’d spotted him and she said yes. I didn’t go over there to look, just continued on my way. Checked out some creeks and ponds for frogs or frog eggs, but none so far. Very pleasant, and perfect weather.
MomSense
@mrmoshpotato:
The door handles to the back deck. I’m not even sure how it is possible. Normally the handle is at a 90 degree angle to the door frame, but now it is stuck down at like a 60 degree angle like she somehow managed to force it to move while still locked? And the whole thing is stripped so I can just move it up and down and nothing happens.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Good eye — it’s a nautical map of the southern part of Tampa Bay that I placed (as decoration) in an inexplicable glass-covered insert in our kitchen counter.
Fair Economist
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: My mom despises “Clair de Lune” because her sister tried to learn it as a pianist not yet up to it and played it so much my mother still can’t stand it 70 years later.
Kent
I’d agree. That’s when Hendrix did the reverse invasion of the UK and the whole center of the music universe basically shifted to the US. But then what do I know? I was 4 at the time.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: And…… subscribed.
Michael Rapaport is similarly pissed.
“Oprah is your boss.” BWHAHAHAHA
Fair Economist
@Omnes Omnibus: I saw Cats as a teen in London and liked it. I saw it again last year and was really disappointed. Dunno what was different, probably me. It’s really more a dance piece than a musical. I am curious to see the film just to see how much of a trainwreck it is.
Betty Cracker
@CaseyL: I don’t watch Cuomo’s press conferences, but I did see a longish clip of one from just the other day where he took Trump to task for comments Trump made about Cuomo and New York’s handling of the virus at one of the daily briefing/rallies. Hooboy, did Cuomo strip the bark off that shit-stain! It was riveting!
James E Powell
I got called away by a family group chat so I missed all the excellent, insightful comments on my British Invasion question. I get that UK acts never stopped coming over and that there were subsequent bursts of activity, but none of these were anything like what happened after February 1964.
I went through each week of the Billboard Hot 100 starting at the end of January 1964. I focused on the Top 40 to make it manageable. In the first year, there were 66 Top 40 songs by British Invasion artists, 18 by the Beatles. The second year, 52 total, 7 by the Beatles. Third year, 30, 5 by the Beatles.
I want to argue that it was over the week ending January 28, 1967. The No. 1 song was “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees, there were no UK artists in the Top Ten, and The Beatles did not have a song on the Hot 100. (Of course they released Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields a month later and go about transforming popular music – again – but let’s leave that aside for the moment.)
Tell me why I’m right or wrong and thank you again for all for your comments.
Miss Bianca
Well, thanks to zhena gogolia, I have been amusing myself by reading all at a gulp Anthony Trollope’s The Duke’s Children, and resigning myself to the fact that I shall probably now have to read all the Palliser novels! (*shakes virtual fist feebly*)
I am going to make cornbread this afternoon, as I have a crockpot of red beans going to cook overnight.
And I have been putting off a couple of melancholy email tasks – one to the cast and crew of Much Ado, to tell them that the production will be postponed till next year; and one to go over all the emails Alain sent me, to help me determine which photos I should choose for his On the Road memorial. Those tasks I shall now embark upon forthwith.
Fair Economist
That cake should be frosted green, have eyes put on it, and used for a production of Little House of Horrors.
mrmoshpotato
@Fair Economist: ?Feed me, Betty…?
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
Just start at the beginning (Can You Forgive Her?) and enjoy! They don’t really have to be read in order. Each one has its own plot, really.
zhena gogolia
@James E Powell:
Well, I’m pleased that you put it in Jan. 1967 because then my estimate of 1966 isn’t too far off. I have a hard time separating “British invasion” from “Beatles” because it was so clearly spurred by them. So when that huge spate of great songs started to pushed out by the likes of Sinatra and the Monkees, I felt it was over.
J R in WV
@MattF:
As mentioned above, T E Lawrence was an academic in the old-school British vein, knew multiple languages and worked as a field archaeologist in the Mid-East. He wrote a huge book, and edited it repeatedly to attempt to eliminate “gutters” in the flow of the cast type, which, perhaps, some of the printers resented and hated. In other words, after he finished with the content of the text, he spent months working to make the appearance of the text more perfect. OCD, much? Of course.
He was a multi-path genius, obviously had PTSD after his war time experience, and there is no telling what he might have accomplished but for crashing that motorbike. At least the book was virtually complete when he died — we will never know if it was an accident or suicide.
The British managed to kill off many of their best and brightest via homophobia…! Alan Turing for one of the best…
UncleEbeneezer
My wife made this deep dish pizza on Friday and it was AMAZEBALLS!!1. You need 24 hours to let the dough rise, but after that it was fairly simple. She made just a simple cheese pizza but we can’t wait to try it again with some toppings.
We are doing very little today. Probably just gonna watch some movies/tv. I’m a bit stir-crazy so I may go for a walk around the block, but I don’t really enjoy the warm breath trap of my mask and claustrophobic feeling, so I may not.
For anyone who loves Bake Off, I highly recommend Great Pottery Throw Down and Portrait Artist of the Year (both on Youtube). They both have the same cozy vibe, cool contestants and serious artistic genius.
laura
@divF: I am eating a chile verde burrito-the last morsel of what began life as a slow roasted shoulder with risotto beets and salad the converted with a can of hatch chilies and a can of rotel then split into eat and freeze. This is the last of the frozen and so satisfying.
Roadie brother the elder took me to see LOA in 1989 at the north point theater at the corner of Bay and Powell. Just accross the street was Grama Foley’s favorite restaurant Cesars. It was a Union restaurant till the day it closed. The chicken cannelloni were so tender and light that she called them little clouds, lightly napped with a tomato sauce. The bar had pictures of the Pope and JFK over the cigarette machine.
GBB is the show I’d turn to on sleepless nights. I’ve got a pair of sponge cakes in the freezer as a result. There’s frozen raspberries too. May have to cake it up…
James E Powell
@zhena gogolia:
Any proposed end date is going to be arguable and to some extent arbitrary. I suppose that’s why my reading did not disclose any consensus on an ending.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow, i didn’t know Ullman was in it, but she’s very talented. I’d give it a shot just for Cate Blanchett and Margo Martindale– it’s on Hulu isn’t it? I let my subscription lapse but I’m tempted to renew it just between that and What We Do In The Shadows
Mandalay
@danielx:
Well they weren’t that big before Woodstock, but they were afterwards, and arguably stole the show.
Here’s another no name foreigner who was a contender for stealing the show at Woodstock.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker:
Calling out trump for sitting around watching TV* was worth the price of admission by itself
*Left unsaid, he watches TeeVee all day and gets good and revved up for his commandeering of the TV in the evening. President T. V. Fuddlehead.
JOHN MANCHESTER
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-90M6rgo8L/ Here’s what my wife made from the British Baking Show—known in France as an “eglise” (church) or “religieuse” (nun.) To die for (or not in these isolation times)
J R in WV
@frosty:
Since you are still in AZ, and if you are still on the thread, I wanted to recommend two National Monuments in Cochise county, the SE corner of AZ. One is on the west side of the Sulfur Springs Valley, Dragoon Mtns, Cochise Stronghold, where the Apache tribe led by Cochise held off the US Army Cavalry for several years.
The other is the Chiricahua National Monument, on the east side of the valley.
There may still be swarms of Sandhill Cranes, which winter over in the valley by the hundreds of thousands. There is a great private museum just off I-10 called the Amerind Institute, worth a day’s visit. And Bisbee is worth a stop, along the Mexican border, was a huge glory hole of a copper mine. Museum, mine tours. And Tombstone, where they still do the OK Corral shootout reinactments — it too was a bonanza of silver mining.
JoyceH
@laura: “The bar had pictures of the Pope and JFK over the cigarette machine.”
My grandma had a picture of Jesus in the living room (the knocking at the door one), and in the kitchen a picture of Eisenhower. Since Ike was in uniform, I think the tribute was less to the President and more to Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes! I also loved it when he said that any estimates of needed equipment that turned out to be overestimates were based on Trump’s own CDC’s estimates and that maybe Trump would know that if he read their work.
Cuomo also got in a great zinger when he said he’s already thanked Trump multiple times for sending the Navy ship and the Army Corps to build out the Javits Center and noted that BY THE WAY, that’s Trump’s JOB, and what does he want, “a bouquet of flowers” for doing his JOB? It was great. I hope Trump saw that, which he probably did since he watches TV all fucking day.
J R in WV
We are smelling the brownies baking… ’tis wife’s birthday. I had hoped to make tiramisu, but alas forgot to get marscapone at the store the other day.
So brownies with pecans. Ummm! And ice cold milk….
ETA: a very long time ago there was a tiny Italian place in my home town. They would do family specialties from time to time, and offer those to a few customers. One such was cassata Siciliana, Sicilian Cake, a yellow cake with candied fruit bits, tiny semi-sweet chocolate chips, frosted with a bitter chocolate icing, and between the layers an icing of sweetened ricotta cheese with candied fruit and choco bits.
Once in a great while we will make on of those wonderful bad boys… it takes most of the afternoon.
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And Uzo Aduba from Orange is the New Black. She doesn’t really look like Shirley Chisholm but her performance is great. They post the first 3 on demand and then every Wednesday.
raven
@JoyceH: Jesus wants a beer NOW!
J R in WV
@Mandalay:
No name aka Joe Cocker. I saw him in a show with BB King, Carlos Santana and Janis Joplin at the old convention center in Philly. ETA: The show was in the late fall of 1969, so just after the big show at Woodstock.
Leon Russel played the piano for Joe.Big band… Mad Dogs and Englishmen?
Couldn’t begin to pick the best out of those four acts. Well, OK, Carlos Santana for the win. A genius of the fingers and guitar. Still cooking after all these years!
But Janis, wow, what pipes that woman had!! And BB King, play a little, sing a little, play a little, sing a little. All great.
Tenar Arha
@dmsilev: Sorry to be so late, got distracted by face mask sewing, & forgot to follow the thread. I broke out my snaggly backstitch from my rusty home ec skills.
I’ve definitely seen it on a projector tv for sure, & I’m pretty sure I remember watching it in college or for a David Lean revival, but strangely I don’t remember the theater clearly? Which makes me wonder if it’s one of those movies I’ve seen so many times I’ve “remembered” it into that setting.
My father taught me to love movies. And he would always make sure to point out when Bridge Over the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago, or LAO was on tv. We often re-watched them together.
SWMBO
@greenergood: Haven’t read the thread yet, but sign up for Fathom events. They do short re-releases of classics (2 or 3 nights) in local theaters where you can see classic films on the big screen. They aren’t doing any right now. They did the operas that Subaru Diane was hosting at a local movie theater. We like Fathom for the Studio Ghibli releases. When you sign up, they ask if you have any preferences.
https://www.fathomevents.com/
frosty
@James E Powell: I liked the commenter who suggested “Tomorrow Never Knows” in Aug 66, and the one who suggested Monterey Pop Jun 67 (which marched my Summer often Love idea). I think your research holds up and splits the difference. I’d check a little more to see if there’s anything on the charts before or after by the minor Invasion bands: DC5, Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, for example. The Invasion was definitely done when they were gone.
Interesting question! That was 3 intense musical years! 12 to 15 years old for me.
frosty
@J R in WV: Thanks! The museums and Tombstone attractions are probably closed for CV19. The NMs might be worth a visit though.
JoyceH
@Tenar Arha: “got distracted by face mask sewing”
I hope face masks become acceptable wear after the pandemic finally lets us go, because I think I’d like to wear them during pollen season. (Lots of people in Asia wear masks fairly regularly, but I think that’s due to air pollution.) And I’m sure going to start wearing one for brushing the cats!
James E Powell
@frosty:
That’s an interesting measure, though I would not consider the DC5 to be a minor band. They didn’t have a long career, but they were second only to the Beatles in Top 40 hits for two years with 12. The DC5 was one reason it was the British Invasion and not just Beatlemania. And I think a few of their songs still hold up well.
The others you mention, though, really were minor players. Billy J Kramer & the Dakotas, the Searchers, and Gerry & the Pacemakers disappear at the end of the first year. Peter & Gordon (really helps if your sister is dating Paul McCartney) and Chad & Jeremy had a few more appearances, but nothing much.
Maybe I should think of it as a one year thing?
LongHairedWeirdo
I think you really nailed why I like the show, too. It’s a happy, feel good show, with people doing something they really enjoy doing, and mostly, they’re all rooting for each other – I saw a bit of snark, a few gentle pokes here and there, but I’ve never seen anyone wishing another baker ill. I’m sure some of them, sometimes, really hoped someone (besides themselves) would have a bit of bad luck, but it never seemed like they wanted a *particular* baker to have bad luck – they wanted to out bake them.
Hee. It reminds me of the time when I was a child, and realized that, in a real sense, cheaters never win. See, as soon as you cheat, *you aren’t playing the same game*. You can’t win a game, not for real, if you’re cheating. (I was pretty young – probably under 12 – so that was actually a pretty heady philosophical achievement for me[1])
That mates well with a surprise realization that came later: “sport” doesn’t actually mean running around, probably with a ball involved – it refers to fun/entertainment. Being a good sport means being someone who wants a good game, one enjoyable for everyone, whether it’s golf, baseball, soccer… or chess or tiddly winks. They might want to play their best, but would rather lose with their best, than win with a bit of cheating.
And yes, one thing I love about the show is, everyone *is* a good sport, in that sense. Plus, it’s fun to watch, and learn a bit, and sympathize with those having bad times, and cheering those doing well.
[1]Not as startling as realizing I’d applied “cogito, ergo sum” to Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street at the age of 6. See, in my day, he was supposed to be Big Bird’s imaginary friend. I never realized that, because I knew he was real, because he made decisions when Big Bird wasn’t around. If he was an imaginary friend, he couldn’t do that (at least, not without Big Bird knowing). So, when he chose to wander off, when Big Bird wanted to show him to friends, I knew he was “real”, and never twigged to anything other than “boy, what bad luck that no one else ever sees him.”