tasting by sight

from Hong Kong Fusion, Haddon Heights/Cherry Hill, NJ Region: fried ice cream with a cake-like crust--sweet but light, melting with each slow chew; mushrooms, noodles, green beans--tasty, savory with gentle service for a foodie's soul. We ate the dessert after the entree, but you could go for dessert first and have fun with your palate.

If you visit the area, or live somewhere close, don't miss this gem for a filling and affordable meal that beguiled my sous-chef son who said "this is the most imaginative and delicious Chinese restaurants I have been to and worth flying across the country to eat at again."

http://www.hkfrestaurant.com/

eating at El Corral at 93

This is a picture of dear old Dad, celebrating his 93rd birthday with a "mud pie" at El Corral in Tucson. He had just finished off five grilled shrimp and two rolls, loaded with butter before digging into this dessert. Yes, he has five stents to keep his clogged arteries going but he only got them at the age of 91! I can't imagine how many burgers, fries, salami sandwiches, Dairy Queen sundaes, and (since moving to the Tucson area with mom), Lucky Wishbone fried chicken he has devoured over the years.

Now, with the UA Basketball season winding down, I suspect a wave of depression may set in before (I hope) he can transition to a season of pool exercises at Cascades where he lives. Kermit sang, "It's not easy being green..." and others have lamented "it's not easy getting old." I see it in every visit I have with my dad: it's not easy to witness how a man--who, at 5 a.m., used to shovel snow off of our house roof in Elgin, Illinois and then go to work at Hillcrest school to shovel snow and ice off the sidewalks so the teachers and kiddies wouldn't slip and slide--now has to push his walker to the dining room. But he does get there to where he needs to go and so, when these birthday milestones roll around, we put on our birthday celebration faces and call out to the cosmos that yes, this son of Italian peasant parentage, continues to enjoy the just desserts of his life.

And: here's the link to El Corral: http://www.elcorraltucson.com/lp.html . We enjoy the food, the rustic western atmosphere and the sense of Tucson-time that this 1930s heritage place brings to our eating experience.

attitudes and actions

I am sharing this link because, as it happens today, my daily literature reminded me that the ONLY things I have control over are my attitudes and actions. So, keeping that in mind, here are word shifts that can reframe both: http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/become-more-optimistic-6-tricks.html

And "here's looking at you" on 3/1/12, Arizona Inn

caprice

The early Spring is changing today a bit and, as I watch the branches bend and flower leaves dance, I think this word applies: there's a bit of whimsy in my day--what about yours?

caprice \kuh-PREES\, noun:

1. A sudden, unpredictable change, as of one's mind or the weather.
2. A tendency to change one's mind without apparent or adequate motive; whimsicality; capriciousness.
3. Music. Capriccio.

Does she turn, thought he, thus, from one to the other, with no preference but of accident or caprice? Is her favour thus light of circulation?
-- Fanny Burney, Camilla, or a Picture of Youth

You lose, you gain—it's all caprice. The omnipotence of caprice. The likelihood of reversal. Yes, the unpredictable reversal and its power.
-- Philip Roth, The Humbling

Caprice is from the Italian word capriccio which means a sudden start or motion. It comes from the word capro meaning goat.

cordate

cordate \KAWR-deyt\, adjective:

1. Heart-shaped.
2. (Of leaves) heart-shaped, with the attachment at the notched end.

Despite their strong and interlinked root structure, the actual flowers were of a lowly order, though, canted towards the sun, they attracted the cordate butterflies.
-- Brian Wilson Aldiss, Hothouse

Without any wind blowing, the sheer weight of a raindrop, shining in parasitic luxury on a cordate leaf, caused its tip to dip, and what looked like a globule of quicksilver performed a sudden glissando down the center vein, and then, having shed its bright load, the relieved leaf unbent.
-- Vladimir Nabakov, Speak, Memory

Related to core, cordate comes from the Latin word for heart, cor, and the suffix -ate which forms an adjective from a noun.

_________________

I am "in love" with words and the sentence above by Vladimir Nabakov is perfect to me. I suggest it is also a poem, with some line editing by me:

Without any wind blowing,

the sheer weight of a raindrop,

shining in parasitic luxury on a cordate leaf,

caused its tip to dip,

And,

what looked like a globule of quicksilver

performed a sudden glissando down the center vein,

And then,

having shed its bright load,

the relieved leaf

unbent.

Happy Valentine's Day--from anitawrites

perspicacious

perspicacious \pur-spi-KEY-shuhs\, adjective:

1. Having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning.
2. Archaic. Having keen vision.

Perspicacious is derived from the Late Latin word perspicācitās meaning "sharpness of sight."

While I was working at HUD, the state director, Terry Goddard, described me with this word and I thought "uh-ho" my chances at continuing with the HUD Tucson office are now doomed for sure. I knew that my director (she who shall not be named) was already "nervous" about me and feared that I wanted her office director job which I definitely did not. And yes, my HUD career ended with my two year Fellow contract.

As this word popped up on my daily word email, I wonder if this characteristic has become "archaic." More and more in my community development profession, I have concluded that an emerging asset is to not see too much or say too much--but to just know enough to get along, get the "job" done. Yes, this is a cynical conclusion which is one of the main reasons I am shifting my professional efforts into writing which, I hope, is still an area where having keen sight is a strength not a weakness and certainly not a liability.

In your profession, is being perspicacious valued?

serry

Another word play for the day:

serry \SER-ee\, verb:

To crowd closely together.

Serry is from the Middle Frenceh serré which was the past participle of serrer meaning “to press tightly together.”

Serry in a poem by afonte

As I sit at my desk,

clicking the computer keyboard

to the rhythm of Mozart,

I see my late morning birds

as they serry around seeds

and soothe their fluffed feathers.