Food: I don't know about the rest of the country, but here in north Texas the grocery stores are more than back to normal.
No shortages of anything.
Yes, on any given day, I might not find something I'm specifically looking for but in general, there are no shortages.
I was reminded of that looking through an old issue -- June 11, 2020 -- of The New York Review of Books. A UC-Berkeley professor has a lead article telling us about the shortages in the American food supply due to Covid-19. The title of the essay: "The Rot in our Food Supply." Wow, talk about a story that had no legs. Yes, there was a "relative" meat shortage early on but from what I can tell, there's more than enough escargot, fish, chicken, eggs, lamb, pork, and beef. After getting the gist of the article in the first three paragraphs, and realizing Mike must be living on a planet different than the one I am living on, I skimmed the rest of the article, and was unable to find any recommendations on how to make things better.
Comment: the only "good" thing about this essay was to remind me how incredibly wonderful a free market really is.
India: only one other essay worth writing about in the same issue -- "The Pillage of India," by Christopher de Bellaigue.
The author reviews two books, including one I recently bought through Amazon and am slowly working my way through: The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire. I bought the book simply to learn more about the history of India since so many of my neighbors are first and/or second generation Indians. I haven't read that essay yet; in fact I did not even notice the essay until I was getting ready to use the magazine pages for tinder for my Weber grill chimney. The current issue of The New York Review of Books arrived yesterday and critical mass in my little hovel will be reached if I have more than one issue of The New York Review of Books.
Breaking news: PGA player tests positive. OMG. Just when they were getting back to live play. I'm not sure if we will get through this weekend; the question is whether they will stop the tournament currently under play.
Food. Back to food. I have never grilled so much as I have grilled in the past few weeks. There are many reasons for that, but suffice it to say:
- salmon: 18 minutes, on a water-soaked cedar plank, indirect heat, but close to the coals;
- flank steak: 90 seconds directly on lump natural charcoal, fifteen minutes in foil, following; salt/pepper rub;
- Teres major: 18 minutes, indirect heat; hot coals; salt/pepper rub; and maybe 16 minutes if the cut is relatively small;
- beer-can chicken: 1.25 hours; various rubs;
- corn, ears, in the husk, well soaked: 20 minutes, tops
From the current issue of
The New York Review of Books, the
following:
Police brutality, Chicago, 1972 - 1991: "A Legacy of Torture in Chicago," Peter C. Baker, a freelance writer in Evanson, IL. It should be a very interesting read; I'm always interested in learning more geography:
- Area 2: in the predominantly black South Side
- Area 3: city's southwest side
- Homan Square: an off-the-books interrogation site in the North Lawndale neighborhood
- it appears there are three areas "ripe" to become North America's next autonomous zones; what's stopping them -- even lightweights in Seattle managed to take downtown Seattle, and bantamweights in Minnesota took over Minneapolis; certainly heavyweights in Chicago can do as well, if not better;
"Mexico's Ruinous Messiah," Enrique Krauze, writer and recognized authority on Mexico. The writer adds AMLO to his list of despots, to include Turkey's Erdogan and Venezuela's Maduro. Who would have guessed. Should be a fascinating essay. I'm surprised to see it in
TNYROB, and I'm surprised the editors accepted it, agreed to print it despite naming Maduro in the list of tyrants.
The scientific method, an essay by Jessica Riskin, teaches history at Stanford.
So, lots to read.
In addition, I am reading a chapter a night of
White Mischief, James Fox.
Last week:
It has come down in price since I last checked about a week ago:
