Grammar'ing With Google - Season 1 Episode 1 "Say It Ain't Sew"

Today on FB someone recommended the book "A Garlic Testament" by Stanley Crawford. Apparently he's going out to New Mexico this fall to "sew garlic with Stan". A few comments down he posted a correction - he meant he'd be sowing garlic with Stan this autumn.

Now in the meantime I'd wondering about the use of s-e-w and I did a Google search for sewing garlic, which returned 3,360,000 results. A search for sowing garlic only returned 547,000.

"That's a popular misspelling" the future sower of garlic responded when I posted my findings on FB.

Sew and Sow are homophones, words that sound the same but differ in spelling and meaning. A homophone shouldn't be confused with a homonym. A homonym is a word with the same spelling and pronounciation but can have many different meanings (like the word set for example).

For non-native English speakers (such as myself) homophones, homonyms, and homographs can be a little tricky and lots of ESL (English as a Second Language) materials are devoted to helping people learning English to get it right. Monsieur Redacteur who is a Professeur d'Anglais has this helpful advice: "Don't think about it."

Apparently 3 million plus people don't.

Image courtesy of Pound Exclaim.

And that's all for Grammar'ing with Google for today folks. Until next time.

Read more >>

Catfish - The Social Network Meets The Night Listener

A few nights ago I watched the documentary Catfish.  I found the name of it on a blog somewhere about little movies that got lost in the "blockbuster" shuffle in 2010. I thought it was a documentary about some guy making friends with an eight year old girl over Facebook. I wish I could remember which blog I saw the description on now because I'd love to ask which movie they were actually talking about.

Just imagine I'm bracing myself for some sicko documentary about some documentary film directors proving that Facebook doesn't protect children from online predators - but something's off. First off the film is populated by hipsters. There's Nev (Nev Schulman) who is the "main" character in this documentary. He's a photographer...he's receiving packages of art work from an 8 year old girl in Michigan. The artwork is impressive. There's something flat about the colour, but it's charming because you know the picture has been painted by an 8 year old.

Then the tone of the movie chanages a little. Nev develops a little crush on the eight year old Abby's nineteen year old sister, Megan. I can understand why. The girl is beautiful and apparently is good at everything. Or is she?

I don't want to ruin the documentary for those who haven't seen it, and you really, really should. It's been a long time since I've been so engrossed by a documentary.

Here's the trailer in case you want it.

--- There Be Spoilers Below!!! ---

If you don't want it all ruined for you I would not read on. One of the great things about this movie is that while watching it I had someone sitting next to me I could turn to and say "WTF" to and who is slightly more innocent (and perhaps less of a cynic) than I am who refused to believe that the bad part was coming. Me, I was on to the whole thing the minute I head Meagan's voice.

I knew Nev was headed for disaster and that is what makes this film so touching. It really kind of is a love story. A sick, twisted, fucked up one where poor Nev gets his heart broken. Meanwhile nothing is as it seems. Angela turns out to be a sad woman, Nev feels a fool, and the real genius of the whole show is the guy who is too stupid to figure out his wife's online lover is sitting on his porch filming him.

Now since seeing the film I've let the Internet get to me, so let me just say either Nev Schulman is the best actor ever or Catfish is a real documentary. It doesn't matter really. I was pretty entertained and interested in the characters and that's good enough for me either way.

Read more >>

Make a 10 Minute Dessert Look Like It Took 60 Minutes

Sometimes when I cook a big meal I don't want to mess with dessert. Truth be told despite some of my baked accomplishments (like cheesecakes), I really dislike baking. I'm sort of a pinch of this - bit of that kind of cook. Baking requires precision and attention over long periods of time where it seems like nothing happens. I like the fast pace of bringing the meal together. Once it's time for dessert I've exhausted my supply of culinary fireworks.

Hence this dessert. Ideally served in the summer months when lots of different berries are in season, this dessert impresses and requires very little effort on your part.

I buy quatre-quart in France, but poundcake works just as well. I slice it into nice thick slices, sprinkle sliced strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries - use a small spoonful of Bonne Maman jam, some whipped cream, and voila! A yummy dessert that will impress, but be simple enough that it's obvious you're not trying to fool anyone. You can use peaches, berries, and even crushed chocolates (with cherries is yum too).

I use the same cake to make a fruit tiramisu (with raspberry liqueur), but that definitely takes longer than 10 minutes, so I'll feature that the next time I make it, which may be very, very soon as this was a delicious treat after a long day of running round Paris (you know, scouring my favourite vintage boutiques).

Read more >>

I'm Bored of Cooking...

Every once in awhile I get bored of cooking.

Last week on top of every day cooking I cooked a bunch of massive meals. Steaks, pepper sauce, Oreo cheesecake, buttermilk pancakes, fried porkchops breaded with brioche crumbs and peanut crumbs, marscapone and wasabi whipped potatoes, and then for my neighbour's birthday on Saturday alone I made 3 kilos of galbi, kimchees, mini-paejons, and lots of other assorted Korean side dishes. I made enough extra that I didn't have to cook all day Sunday or Monday, but now I'm sick of Korean food (for a few days anyways) and have to make a decent dinner after having had a bowl of Golden Grahams for lunch (and a banana).

It's rare I'm not inspired to cook. Even when I'm not inspired to do much else I can always think of a delicious meal that will challenge my culinary skills and make my tummy happy.

Usually when I can't thinking of something I want to cook I look at food blogs, but one sure thing is always to look at the Food Network's website.

Now the weather is cold. I thought about lasagna, but I would have to make sauce, so that's took much work for me at the moment. I'd like something spicy though.

What I'd really like is a nice plate of buffalo chicken wings. It's something I miss from time to time. I ate them at least once a week in my college days, usually followed by a massive square pizza with loads of toppings.

So that's what I'm going to cook tonight. Good ol' fashioned American Hooters fare, except I'm going to have to get creative. Blue cheese is readily found in France, but blue cheese dressing isn't. I'll have to make my own. I'll also have to make my own hot sauce and I'll be lucky if I find Tabasco sauce.

Here's tonight's menu...

Starter

Buffalo chicken wings w/celery sticks and bleu cheese dressing

Mains

Beef and sausage meatloaf w/ pomegranate molasses and homemade tomato ketchup glaze, Southern style baked macaroni and cheese, and green beans with bacon.

Dessert

?

The buffalo wings with bleu cheese dressing and a smidge of celery.



Read more >>