8 posts tagged “qotd”

what are your personal memories of september 11th?

i did about as much dwelling on september 11th as i could handle, four years ago. read what i wrote then, if you will... but today i'm out of words, and have been for a long time.

i thought it would be different, after, but i still can't find the words. i've taken to carrying the old moleskine along on my lonely commute in case i happen onto my muse, but so far -- no luck.

it's today again. maybe.

suppose i can answer a couple qotd's in the meantime: karaoke? always enjoy singing sarah mclachlan. or norah jones. or anyone else who can transform voice into something altogether liquid. i wish i could do that. my favorite children's movie? oh, i wish i could narrow something like that down. well, let's see: i've always had a soft spot for pinocchio. majo no takkyuubin gets a nod, as well.

home-made poutine, with roasted sweet potato wedges, chicken-gravy-from-a-jar and beecher's market herb cheese curds. lovely, mild, warm, homey, tasty.

... i'm enjoying reading geoffrey chaucer hath a blog (current entry: "serpentes on a shippe!") waaay too much.

besides that, though, there's absolutely nothing nerdy about me. at all.

what are your favorite and least favorite words?  any reasons why?

i've never really thought about this in an organized way, but give me a word that sounds beautiful, looks beautiful, and has an intriguing & memorable definition, and i'm hooked.

to wit (and with help from answers.com):

synaesthesia

syn·aes·the·sia (sĭn'ĭs-thē'zhə)
n.

1. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.
2. A sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of stimulus applied to another, as in referred pain.
3. The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another

palimpsest

pal·imp·sest (păl'ĭmp-sĕst')
n.

1. A manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible.
2. An object, place, or area that reflects its history: “Spaniards in the sixteenth century . . . saw an ocean moving south . . . through a palimpsest of bayous and distributary streams in forested paludal basins” (John McPhee).

i really don't have any least favorites... if it was worth turning into a word, it's probably worth being a word, if for no other reason than posterity.

What's your favorite drink or cocktail? What's in it?
Question submitted by charm.vox.com

i'm a sucker for wild ginger's mango daiquiri -- heavenly! this should be no surprise to anyone who knows me. unfortunately, i've no idea how to make one at home, but in a pinch a sapphire & tonic will suffice, anytime.

oh! have you heard of sake bombs? balance some good sake in a sake cup (or a shot glass if you're without) on two chopsticks bridged over the mouth of a tall glass or mug of dry japanese beer (e.g. asahi or sapporo). yell, "sake bomb!" and bang your fists on the bar so that the sake, container and all, falls into the beer (sometimes this takes two or three tries, depending on the size of your fists, or the bar). proceed to imbibe.

so messy, but verrry smooth. mrowr.

haven't cooked nearly enough lately, so i think i'll opt out of today's qotd. though i do make a mean maple-ginger glazed salmon, or so i've been told.

how many outfits? i'm very nervous about my upcoming trip. three weeks! i can't remember the last time i took such an extended voyage. i have no idea how to pack for such a thing. pack for heat, they say, but don't forget to pack for cold too! will i be able to launder there? my friend j tells me that in china it's often easier and cheaper to just buy new clothes when the old stuff gets dirty than it is to wash things. i find this kind of advice very intimidating.

am living a paradox as far as preparedness goes. the rough guide to china and fodor's hong kong are already being devoured in earnest; i love travel guides and maps, love the smell and feel of discovery by paper and the opportunity to meet a place in the flesh already feeling like an old friend. i remember my rough guide to egypt (i heart rough guides above all others), already dog-eared and read cover-to-cover twice before i'd even set foot in that ancient kingdom, maps covered in tentative, often revised, footpaths of pencil. checkpoints every half hour. but this time i'm at a bit of a loss. though hong kong is free for exploring, china will be fully chaperoned -- no room for wandering off the trail. haven't even had a chance to, or perhaps have chosen not to, learn the itinerary to see which locales will be hit, though one can only assume the biggies: beijing, xi'an, shanghai... in such a huge country, i thought it best to let others run the logistical hurdles. but now am feeling pangs of regret at not being able to plan the ins and outs of the trip myself.

(i really am an insufferable micromanager, aren't i? i wonder how people stand to be around me!)

calm down and let it flow, she says, my better judgment. it's out of your control, and if you forget something, well, that's another adventure for the memoirs. but all i can do is think: how many outfits?

i have no idea, but i'd probably fix my windshield wipers.

i love reading about everyone's old things. what a great question of the day!

in my dreams, my home is full of ancient relics, a museum wonderland tour of human history. i'm really an antiquarian at heart (or perhaps simply yearning to live out a childhood fantasy out of from the mixed-up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler), but sadly, my (current) oldest possessions in reality are firmly modern -- my father's old leica iiif, from the mid-fifties, or ancient volumes of gide and omar khayyam, picked up at secondhand shops but certainly no older than 1940.

but oh! to have an antique saltcellar, a cake of ambergris, a bottle of pernod fils. an astrolabe! someday, someday...