This past week, Rice graduated it's 100th class, wrapping up a year's worth of Centennial celebrations. And Rice couldn't ask for a more fitting speaker to bring it all home than astro-physicist badass, Neil de Grasse Tyson. Not only did his wife graduate from Rice (Baker!) but he embodies Rice's marriage to NASA and the American spirit of exploration, commitment to the future, and to the great unknown.
I don't feel like I live in that America. But I'm glad Tyson is around to remind us to keep pursuing the unknown, the spirit of innovation, of advancing, and of defining the universe-- and thus, the universal. That our pursuit of these things is tied to so many other important aspects of our perspective.
I often miss my time at Rice, and what it represents. But this was one of the most stinging.
Congrats, class of 2013!
The First Annual Ferguson Burns Night Supper USA turned out not too shabby. I had my doubts leading up to the event with its ever-changing roster of guests. But as the food prep began, I started to feel better because everything was tasting pretty good. There’s something sort of counterintuitive about the idea of vegetarian haggis. But as I started to add in all the ingredients, I consoled myself that, at least in this situation, taste was more important than authenticity. (After all, real haggis is illegal in the USA.)
Not that I was comfortable with authenticity being sacrificed. At one point, I almost cried when everyone seemed reluctant to participate in reading and keeping with the traditional order of events. (They were warned!) But then again, it is nerve-wracking. I’ll admit that I was nervous doing Address to the Haggis. Whisky fixed that. I practiced a couple of times because even though no one else would know if I was pronouncing the Scots wrong, I would know.
There’s great slang in Scots. Sonsie, Scunner, Skinking. I think I’d like to try to find a way to incorporate more of it into American daily life. And more of these recipes.
I substituted half red lentils and half quinoa in this recipe for vegetarian haggis, and ricotta + whipping cream for double cream on the cranachan. In addition to Talisker (Isle of Skye-- holla!) for toasting, I had ingredients for refreshing, jazzed with candied ginger Presbyterians.
Man, it made me miss Scotland. But thanks to my friends for helping to celebrate the cultural richness of the place I love most.
Tonight, I am having a Burns Night Supper at my house. In the grand tradition of almost all my parties, almost no one is coming. (At least I can always count on McC!) At least the weather is obligingly Scottish. Nevertheless, I am making vegetarian haggis, neeps & tatties and cranachan. Sophie has even offered to skype in to sing us some "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight (8 AM Scottish time) but to be honest, I doubt we'll make it that long.
In any case, I love this holiday. It's also my dad's birthday, Rob Shafer's birthday, and Kate Floyd's birthday. All lifetime favorites.
Here are your links.
- One of my favorite articles (from the D. Patz) on Burns
- Tartan picks for a stylish Burns Night.
- I. Love. This. Song. I wish all bands sang with Scottish inflection.
- My next read, Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend.
- 25 greatest unscripted movie scenes.
- Facts about the new Mad Men series. Oooh, so soon!
- This is hilarious!
- I always loved you, Jimmy Carter.
- There's a part of me that agrees with this.
- But then, I do also love Andrew Sullivan.
- Salon's guide to memoir writing
- Oooh, new Stephen Poliakoff film project
- Rice is going to have a CLASS ON DOWNTOWN ABBEY next semester!
My heart is warmed thinking of this guy speaking at the 100th commencement of my alma mater. Rice 2013 grads sure are lucky. (His wife is an alum, so I guess that was our in.)
Neil is more than a scientist. He's a modern philosopher of real life and I can't wait to see what he tells those kids. I feel like he's going to blow our minds. Where Alberto Gonzales (a Rice alum) merely praised the virtues of George W. Bush in my own commencement speech-- in a desperate play to become Attorney General-- I doubt we'll hear much of that from Neil.
Personally, I hope he break dances to Michael Jackson. But in lieu of that, I'll take something more like this. The simple revelry in the science, but also the magic of our existence. This is poetry as good as any I've heard.
Thirty-six frames and out. I've talked before about Steve McCurry being bequeathed the last ever roll of Kodachrome film. I've been writing about contemporary art in Istanbul lately for a freelance job and so of course, this melancholy story is coming full circle for me.
The prints from Steve McCurry's Kodachrome finale were recently on display at the Istanbul Modern. (Also on McCurry's website.) DeNiro, New York, India!
But most especially, NOW there is a new documentary about the experience, from National Geographic-- the organization that helped to make Steve McCurry famous when they put his Afghan Girl on the cover. Check it out, ya'll. Kodachrome may be dead, but the stories aren't.
What was Christmas Eve like when you were growing up? When I lived with my mom, it was considered just as important as Christmas. We made and put out cookies for Santa. We got to open one present from family before we went to sleep to dream of Santa and his reindeer. It had its own ritual, so much so that I genuinely thought Christmas was a two day holiday. That is, until I moved in with my dad and a step family.
There were absolutely, under no circumstances, no presents one could open on Christmas Eve. This rigidity was apparently as important a ritual to them as mine, it precluded mine, and that was probably when I started to dread Christmas. Instead of being a time to think of what I had, it became a reminder of what had been taken away. There was no place for my Christmas in their Christmas. The way I decorated, the way I wrapped, the way I shopped, the way I celebrated.
Since then, I've done my own things to forge rituals around the Christmas experience that were a combination and culmination of my years of Christmases-- the ones where I was sick, the golden ones I started spending with my grandparents (I always miss my Grandfather most around now) and the ones I chose to spend alone in my adulthood, or reeling in Scotland, or with the family of my choice-- mostly Emily & Tigerlily.
My bosses have reflected this roller coaster thought process about the importance of Christmas Eve. Today, for example, we're going in for a bit, mostly just to go over our game plan for the new year and eat. Then my dad and I are going to watch Gone with the Wind with Kade & James. But most of my bosses have been like my stepmother (Scrooge). I've spent most of them at work. All day.
What about you? Do you have a separate/equal Christmas ritual? Do you have to work?
In case you do, here are some other Christmas Eve treats:
