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So I saw some of Harry Eng's amazing bottled knots. His goal was to make people think. That tends to be one of our goals.

So I tied a knot in a bottle.


The neck of the bottle is 18mm in diameter, the rope is 15.88mm (5/8 in) solid braid polypropylene from home depot (way too soft for this sort of work). The bottle is a Knappogue Castle whiskey bottle, with the whiskey safely drunk and the label removed.

Sadly, my phone's camera has no manual focus and can't focus on the figure-8 stopper knot behind the glass. I'll try to get a better picture soon.

The apparent impossibility of the knot in the bottle causes people to think. Then I tell them I don't have any long-handled tweezers, pliers, or forceps, and that of course the bottle has not been damaged or cut.

Just made this, from http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/scalloped_turnips/

Scalloped Turnips Recipe
Ingredients
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
4 cups peeled, sliced turnips
2 Tbsp flour
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 1-quart casserole. Melt 1 Tbsp butter and lightly sauté onions until just wilted.

2 Layer a third of the sliced turnips in the casserole dish; top with a third of the onion; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of flour, 1/3 teaspoon of salt, and one grind of pepper; pat with dollops from 1 tablespoon of butter. Repeat this layering twice.

3 Mix milk and cream together and pour over the turnips. Cover and bake in a 350°F oven for 30 minutes, then remove cover and bake for another 30-45 minutes, or until tender and bubbly.

Yield: Serves 4.

Definitely a good recipe.

A delicious spiced pear pie.
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
pastry for 2-crust pie
5 peeled, sliced fresh pears
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter, cut in small pieces
Preparation:
Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry. Add the sliced pears. Combine sugar, flour, lemon peel, and seasonings; sprinkle over the pears. Drizzle with the lemon juice then dot with the butter. Make a lattice top; flute edges. Cover edge of pie with a strip of foil. Bake at 425° for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake about 10 minutes longer.

*To make a lattice top crust, cut rolled out dough into 1/2-inch-wide strips. Arrange 5 to 6 dough strips across top of filling. Form the lattice by arranging more dough strips at right angle to first set of dough strips, weaving the strips if you wish. Trim dough strips even with the overhang on bottom crust. Tuck ends of dough strips and overhang under; press to seal then crimp the edges.

Use ripe pears, drain extra liquid. This is VERY, VERY good pie.

http://www.goldcoastfestivals.com/Escondido.html

$21/day counting parking, $36 for weekend pass + 2x parking days. (keeps going up )

I'll be with the Celtic Village, Ravenstrike guild. Ask for "Carl".

[WARNING: Naga Jolokia peppers can be about as spicy as most law-enforcement grade pepper spray. Do not use the bathroom/touch your eyes before washing your hands thoroughly.]

Spicy hamburger. I'm a bit of a pepperhead...

WARNING: Naga Jolokia peppers can be about as spicy as most law-enforcement grade pepper spray. Do not use the bathroom/touch your eyes before washing your hands thoroughly.
Unless you're me, then getting it in your eyes stings for a few minutes & your eyes tear up a bit. It hurts a reasonable bit less than, say, breaking a bone. I'd still rather have it in my mouth, where it is just delicious..

Mild spice version:
Ground beef (120g (1/4 pound) is normal.)
Mustard ("stone ground" with seeds): about 1.5 oz (3 tablespoons).
5-6 drops Blair's Ultra Death. Other hot sauce may be used, but it should contain Naga Jolokia peppers. Otherwise it's not a Naga Burger, is it?
Crushed black peppercorns.

Mix beef, mustard, and hot sauce together. Once consistently mixed, form into a patty. Press the crushed black pepper into the patty to coat the surface. Grill or pan-broil. Resulting burger should be mild, about like eating jalapeños straight.

Medium spice version:
Add more hot sauce. 10-12 drops.

High spice version:
Finely mince 1 Naga Jolokia pepper. Add to burger with hot sauce.

Am eating the high spice version now. Extrapolated down for non-pepperheads to get the medium/mild versions. It's pretty good.

So, most of us here have gone beyond the Principia and tend to ignore it. That's fine, the jokes are all old by now anyway. I saw the "5-fingered hand of Eris" (pg 28) and imagined it as three mouths, one happy, one neutral, one sad.



Eris loves you. Eris hates you. Eris doesn't give a fuck about you.

Use it or not, improve it or not, it's a quick easy symbol to draw.

http://www.justanyone.com/allanguish.htm
Rather interesting mangling of English.

Operation Clambake links to Releasing the Bonds as a good book on counter-indoctrination. Has anyone read it yet? It sounds like it might be useful for our BIP work and similar stuff.

http://www.sancairodicopenhagen.com/tbpmd.html

Amusingly random, in the style of Good Omens.
Then again, it's 3 AM so I probably think it's more amusing than it actually is ATM.