Dunsany VI

This is a story for when it's rained all day, and it rained all day yesterday, and it's going to rain all day tomorrow. Once again the text comes from FIFTY-ONE TALES [1915]

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"The Trouble in Leafy Green Street"

She went to the idol-shop in Moleshill Street, where the old man mumbles, and said: "I want a god to worship when it is wet."

The old man reminded her of the heavy penalties that rightly attach to idolatry and, when he had enumerated all, she answered him as was meet: "Give me a god to worship when it is wet."

And he went to the back places of his shop and sought out and brought her a god. The same was carved of grey stone and wore a propitious look and was named, as the old man mumbled, The God of Rainy Cheerfulness.

Now it may be that long confinement to the house affects adversely the liver, or these things may be of the soul, but certain it is that on a rainy day her spirits so far descended that those cheerful creatures came within sight of the Pit, and, having tried cigarettes to no good end, she bethought her of Moleshill Street and the mumbling man.

He brought the grey idol forth and mumbled of guarantees, although he put nothing on paper, and she paid him there and then his preposterous price and took the idol away.

And on the next wet day that there ever was, she prayed to the grey-stone idol that she had bought, the God of Rainy Cheerfulness (who knows with what ceremony or what lack of it?), and so brought down on her in Leafy Green Street, in the prosperous house at the corner, that doom of which all men speak.
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Is Your Cat a Vegan?

So, this past week I read an article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/25/vegan-pet-food-is-it-ok-t_n_178880.html) about people who, being vegans themselves, would like for their cats to be vegans too. I can see the logic of this: if you love animals, and don't believe it's right to slaughter them for meat, then it's a bit of a disconnect to think it's alright for them to be slaughtered for petfood (for non-vegans, imagine it's a horse being killed for you to eat, vs. that same horse going to the knackers for your pet to eat, to get something of the same emotional impact). The problem is, like bears we're natural omnivores, evolved to eat almost anything we can get our hands on (one of the great secrets to our success as a species), whereas cats, we're told, are pure carnivores.

Except they're not. Anyone who's a cat owner can testify that while they like meat v. much, especially in the form of small bugs they catch themselves, a great many housecats will gladly help themselves to human food v. much not designed for feline consumption if they happen to find it lying about and unguarded. I remember reading years ago that the main difference between house cats and their wild ancestors is that domestic cats have intestines that are twice as long, enabling them to live off pretty much whatever's available when they have to -- in short, over the past few thousand years they've come part-way along the path from carnivore to omnivore, like us.

Even more to the point, if you give your cats catfood, they're probably omnivores already: most dry catfood is mainly grains (wheat, rice, corn) rather than meat. For example, the Ingredients list on one of the kinds we feed our cats, Hills Science Diet light, lists its ingredients in order from largest proportion to smallest thusly: "brewers rice" (grain), chicken by-product meal (ground-up animal material), corn gluten meal (grain), powdered cellulose (fiber?), ground whole grain corn (grain), chicken liver flavor (note that this is not actual chicken livers but only "flavor"), animal fat (meat), soybean mill run (basically ground hulls, hence I assume fiber), and a lot of additives.

So while that's certainly nothing a vegetarian would want to eat, it's nonetheless far from being what most of us would call "meat", being more grain than animal parts. That being the case, it wouldn't be too far a leap to replace the meat-byproducts with meat-flavored grain. We're almost to that point now; our local health food store, Minkler's in Renton (right across from the Renton airport), carries a vegetarian dog food, though so far as I cd tell they don't have a vegetarian cat food to match it, at least not in stock last time I was there.

So, we'll see. I suspect we'll all gradually shift to cat foods that are more and more vegetable-based, with a bit of meat flavoring to satisfy the carnivore within. And if most cats do eventually switch to a non-meat diet, it'll be because their owners have done the same. We'll see.

--John R.

The Tea Cupboard

So, caught up in the spirit of spring cleaning, today I cleaned out, organized, and cataloged my tea cupboard. I don't think it's much of a secret to anyone who knows me that I like tea, and that I drink a lot of it. I used to drink mainly iced tea, but over time I've slowly made the switch to where it's now almost always hot tea instead. When I was in graduate school I used to make up huge pans of very sweet (iced) tea (Lipton, which at that point I considered "the good stuff"), boiled on the stove till it was good and strong and, after the addition of a cup of sugar, when cooled down stored in the refrigerator in old Ragu jars (one batch filled about three and a half jars, as I remember). I remember that when Taum dropped by to talk Tolkien, we'd sometimes go through an entire batch. Nowadays I make up two thermosfuls each morning, almost always from loose tea rather than teabags, and anywhere from three to five pots total over the course of the day, most of it sweetened with Tupelo honey, since I gave up sugar six years ago. As I said, a lot of tea.

And, since I make a lot of tea, I have a lot of different kinds of tea to make. Mostly I've come to favor strong China black teas like Keemun and Yunnan rather than the weaker India teas like Darjeeling and Assam (those we used to buy at the Coffee Trader in Milwaukee were great, but the ones out here are anemic by comparison). Some flavored teas are v. nice (vanilla, licorice, mint), but most seem a bit beside the point (who'd want a tea that tastes like cornflowers, or grapefruit?). Green teas are another kind of drink entirely, and while I love the concept so far as taste is concerned for me they're all just lightly colored warm water. The same applies to "teas" that don't actually contain any tea, like a lot of the herbal teas offered in health food stores -- with the notable exception of sassafras tea, always a delight though v. hard to get in these parts (and usually of poor quality when you do).

Anyway, between having lots of different kinds on hand, from different tea shops and online tea merchants, plus samples and bits I tried and didn't take to but hated to just throw away, the shelves have become rather cluttered over the years. There are actually a few teas in there that I don't remember what they are, nor where they've come from. The past few days I've made a concerted effort to make up and drink some of the little odds and ends (sometimes just enough left for a pot, sometimes for a single cup). Now that I've finally gotten them all listed, it'll be easier when I find a trial tea I like to remember it and where it came from, while those that failed to make an impression won't get replaced; eventually my tea shelves will probably settle down at about half as many teas as it has right now.

In any case, thinking it might amuse folks, here's the Tea List as it stood as of Sunday March 29th. I might mention that I'd already used up a few teas in the last few days: Cameronian [TeaCup; definitely a keeper], Connoisseur's Blend [TeaCup], and Irish Breakfast [MarketSpice]; "Gong Full Black Tea" and something marked "Very Old" [both from the Great Wall Mall], and several single teabags. I've marked my favorites in bold: these are teas I try to always keep a good supply of; a few duplicates among the teabags are marked with asterisks.



Tea List

Keemun [TeaCup]
Yunnan [TeaCup]
Richmond Park Blend [Upton]
Keemun Hao Ya A [TeaCup]
Golden Dianhong [TeaCup]

unidentified tea [gift]
?spiced herbal blend from Wotc [thyme bottle]
Sassafras Tea [gingerpeach teajam jar]
lemon mint tea [small apothocary jar]
sampler: Lapsang Souchong Black Dragon [Upton]
sampler: Yellow Tea jun shan yin zhen [Upton]
sampler: Queen Anne cinnamon spice [TeaCup]
sampler: Ed's energy tea [old TeaCup]
sampler: superSencha Kamakura [Upton]
cinnamon twist Rooibos [Pacific Mist, Kent]
Silk Road [TeaCup]
Melange Noel Christmas Tea [Upton tin]
New England Harvest Blend [Upton red]

East Frisian Blend Sunday Tea (vanilla) [Upton apoth. jar]
vanilla tea, single bag [last remaining remnant from Suburbia]
Organic Ethiopian Spiced Tea [Seattle Centre]
Licorice Spice [Perennial Tea Room, Post Alley]
Bag of Billings Teas [Boston Harbor, bulk teas & accessories]
Namaste x2
Keemun x2.1/4
Irish Breakfast
Lapsang Souchang
Vanilla Cream
Yunnan Supreme

Monk's Temple Tea [old TeaCup]
Classic Oolong [old TeaCup]
Poet's Tea [old TeaCup]

Baker Street Blend [old Upton]

China Tarry: Lapsang Souchong [Victoria Tea Shop]
China Keemun Mao Fang [Victoria Tea Shop]
Assam, decaffeinated [Victoria Tea Shop]
Ceylon, decaffeinated [Victoria Tea Shop]

Williamsburg Fine Tea Darjeeling [really good Darjeeling; gift from Sue Cook]
first row: thirty-seven teas


Hong Tao [Upton]
China Flowery Black (organic) [Upton]
Vietnam Black pekoe [Upton]
Lapsang Souchong [new Upton]

Supreme Woodbridge Puer, pestle-ground [Vital Teas]
Yellow Sweet [Vital Teas]
[Note: far better than either of these was their Canton Red, which I only got a little of, all now gone]

NorthWest Breakfast blend [Market Spice]
Darjeeling [Herbal Tea, Portland]
Prince of Wales Tea [Twinings mini-tin]
Black Dragon Pearl [Teavana]
Cloud of Black Tea [Great Wall Mall]
Keemun Black Tea [Great Wall Mall]
xx [xx]
Southern Style Mint [Market Spice]
Darjeeling [Market Spice]
*sassafras [tin of leftover sassafras clips-- a bit stale now]

Ahmad Tea Set
English Tea Noi (No.1) x1 [Ahmad]
English Breakfast x1 [Amhad]
English Afternoon x1 [Amhad]
Ceylon Tea x2 [Ahmad]
Darjeeling Tea x1 [Ahmad]
Earl Grey Tea x8 [Ahmad]

Constant Comment x5 [Bigelow]

teabags: English Breakfast Tea x6 [Trader Joe's], Lipton x2, Plantation Mint [Bigelow], Earl Grey [Bigelow], Lapsang Souchong Tea [Twinings], Organic Darjeeling [TeaCup mini-sampler], Kenya Mountain [TeaCup mini-sampler], Wallingford Decaffeinated Tea x2

second row: sixteen teas plus fifteen different teabags


teabags: Organic Chai [Tazo], Egyptian Camomile [Fairmont], Orange Jasmine [Mighty Leaf], *English Breakfast Tea [Trader Joe's], pekoe [Royal Cup Tea], *Lapsang Souchong x2 [Twinings], Jardin Bleu [TeaCup mini-sampler], *Lipton x2, Lady Grey x2 [Twinings], Earl Grey x4 [Twinings], Golden Monkey [Upton mini-sampler], *Melange Noel Xmas Tea [Upton mini-sampler], *Awake x2 [Tazo], Simply Mint moroccan herbal teasan [Numi]

box of teabags: Awake x8 [Tazo]
third row: lots of (fifteen different) teabags


Decaf English Breakfast [Market Spice]
Decaffeinated Ceylon English Breakfast [Upton]


total: fifty-two teas plus thirty-two different tea bags

My Bible Teaches . . .

God says: No eating bats!

(Leviticus XI.19)

Some commandments are easier to follow than others.

--John R.

What I've Been Reading

So, since re-reading Gaiman's CORALINE (II.2774) and finally finishing up Graham Hancock's FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS (II.2775), the books I've been reading have been a miscellaneous lot.

First was XxxHolic: ANOTHER HOLIC (II.2776), a novelization of the 'CLAMP' manga that turns out to be three short stories, not an actual novel. The first is directly derived from a chapter in the manga and episode of the anime (the woman with self-destructive behavior). The second is v. much in the spirit of the manga (a woman gets a cellphone call from her dead friend at the same time every day). And the third ventures far afield (one day Watanuki wakes up and finds he can no longer see spirits -- or Yuko's shop). Interesting, but less so than either the manga (which seems to be building to a climax) or the anime deriving from it.

Next was a book about ex-presidents I'd spotted in Borders but decided it was better to wait and get from the library, CITIZEN-IN-CHIEF: THE SECOND LIVES OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTS by Leonard Benardo & Jennifer Weiss (II.2777). It's full of fascinating trivia roughly divided into several topics: the growth of the 'ex-presidency' as a quasi-official institution (they get budget and a staff*), the development of the Presidental Library from FDR & Truman's modest establishments to the bloated policy centers of recent presidents; ex-presidents' fiscal woes (Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Grant, Truman) vs. cashing in (Ford, Reagan, Clinton, &c); attempts by ex-presidents to advise or criticize their successors (something few of them have refrained from trying at one time or another); ex-presidents who re-entered politics (JQ Adams in the House, Tyler in the Confederate Congress, A. Johnson in the Senate); and those who devoted themselves to good works (Carter is the shining example here, but also Hayes,** who devoted himself to black education. Who knew?). An interesting book, but not to be relied upon in its details -- there are a fair number of factual errors and other gaffs, most involving dates and generalizations (i.e., the claim that Tyler and Buchanan were distressed by Lincoln's re-election in 1864 -- Tyler*** having in fact died in 1861).

As for my current book, yesterday I started in on UNCHRISTIAN: WHAT A NEW GENERATION REALLY THINKS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY by David King w. Gabe Lyons, a Xian pollster's attempt to convince his fellow evangelicals just how unpopular they've become over the past decade or two (of the fifteen-to-thirty year-olds he polled, 91% considered Xians anti-gay, 87% considered them judgmental, 85% thought them hypocritical) and why. It's a sincere and well-intentioned effort, but it's mildly troubling that (a) a bunch of creationists tracts turned up on amazon when I clicked on this (as in 'readers who liked this book also liked . . .') and (b) the writer himself displays a lot more of the attitudes he deplores than he realizes -- for example, in his assertion that Xians should be anti-gay ("identify homosexual behavior as morally unacceptable"), or his apparent inclusion of Mormans among the unchurched/nonXians he's polling. And of course it's hard to take seriously anyone who praises Charles Colson -- but to be fair, that's Lyons, in his Afterword, not King himself.


And there's no lack of other books still waiting to be read: the Fimi, the Kane, a book on the Black Sea/Noah's Flood theory, &c. Just today the mail brought TOLKIEN'S HEROIC QUEST, by Robert Rorabeck. Although published in the UK, this slim book (128 pages, plus about another twenty pages of notes and bibliography) seems to have originated as a thesis at Florida State University. A quick glance at the mini-biography of JRRT shows up two errors in a page and a half (why on earth did he use Crabbe as his source rather than Carpenter?), and the bibliography is full of odd little gaffs (for example, the author of the Oak Knoll bibliography is given under W as "Waye, Hammond", rather than under H as "Hammond, Wayne"). This does not mean the book itself won't be insightful and interesting; we'll see.

And after that -- FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, perhaps?

We'll see.

--JDR

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*Before 1958 they didn't even get a pension. Truman, for example, not only didn't get flown home on Air Force One but had to buy his own train ticket, arriving back in Independence more or less broke, & had to move into his mother-in-law's house.

**who I only knew as the "winner" who set the example for Bush v. Gore way back in the stolen election of 1876.

***the only ex-president known to have committed high treason.

The New Arrival: Douglas Kane's book

So, today the mail brought my copy of Douglas Kane's long-awaited ARDA RECONSTRUCTED: THE CREATION OF THE PUBLISHED SILMARILLION. I'd been hearing about this one for a year or two, so it's nice to finally see it in print. Essentially it's a chapter-by-chapter look at how the 1977 SILMARILLION was put together, using the source-material published in THE HISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH. Glancing at it, I'm struck by how much it resembled Darrell Martin's pioneering work presented at the 1983 Marquette Tolkien Conference, where (when the HME was just getting off the ground) Darrell drew on Kilby's notes to show how specific sections came from specific sources. Aside from that, there's really nothing quite like this out there; Wayne & Christina do devote a separate (lengthy) entry to every chapter of THE SILMARILLION in their COMPANION & GUIDE, but their approach is v. different and, given that there each chapter appears alphabetically under its chapter title, not sequentially as in the original book, the overall effect is completely different. Besides, they focus on the development of each 'chapter' over time, whereas Kane's focus is on exactly where each paragraph and passage came from: to retrace the assemblage so as to get a better idea of the 1977's volume's construction.

Anyway, congratulations to Kane for the publication; more on this one later when I've had more time to look over and absorb it.

--JDR

The White House has BEES

So, today saw a little story about the First Lady and a bunch of kids breaking ground for the new White House garden. It's nice to see an old tradition return -- there was a time when every great house had its own kitchen garden, and I find it hard to believe that farmers like Washington, Adams, and Jefferson would have preferred all that vast green lawn to some actual growing space. Sounds like they're not planting anything I'd be interested in eating, but more power to them. And, best of all, they're apparently setting up a beehive (no bees, no vegetables) as well. Given the continuing bee die-off underway throughout this country, that's good news, but I can't help wondering what the secret service make of that.
Here's the link, with a nice picture of Mrs. Obama looking game but v. uncomfortable with the rake:


http://weblogs.newsday.com/features/home/gardendetective_blog/2009/03/more_details_on_the_white_hous.html