Tag: Homer

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What The Boys Said To Homer: W.S. Merwin’s The Lice And Our Fragile Place In The World.

Rock, shadow, hole in ice, ring of trees, sky.  W.S. Merwin passed from this life into the further reaches of Hawaii last Saturday.  Certainly one of the great poetic voices through the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st, Merwin captivated readers with his consummate literary skill, knowledge of literary traditions ranging through … Continue reading What The Boys Said To Homer: W.S. Merwin’s The Lice And Our Fragile Place In The World.

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Cooking Beckett: A Stew For Mr. Knott.

I’m rereading Samuel Becket’s novel Watt, while also listening to Dermot Crowley voice the Singing Master’s words on Audiobook.  In the opening pages, we do not meet Watt directly but through Mr. Hackett and Mr. and Mrs. Nixon who sit at a bus stop and observe someone or something disembark from a tram, variously described … Continue reading Cooking Beckett: A Stew For Mr. Knott.

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Happy July 4th! Some Thoughts on Cannibalism For North Carolina.

Our collective human memory reaches far back through many doors, many hallways and rooms, and alway we find, though never that first room, a place to cook and a place to sit down and eat with each other.  In Homer’s the Odyssey, Odysseus portrays this action and place as the best life has to offer. … Continue reading Happy July 4th! Some Thoughts on Cannibalism For North Carolina.

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Cochon De Lait For The Three Graces, Day One

The number of guests at dinner should not be less than the number of the Graces nor exceed that of the Muses, i.e., it should begin with three and stop at nine.  (Marcus Varro) I have a suckling pig in my refrigerator.  Over the next three days I’ll narrate his transformation from corpse to recipe … Continue reading Cochon De Lait For The Three Graces, Day One

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Fats, Gods, and Fire

I consider Harold McGee a Moses of Food, that is, he’s come down from the mountain with tablets announcing what cooking is really about, and what natural laws we should follow. Concerning the Holy Tablet of Fats, here are his words from On Food and Cooking, Fats and oils are members of a large chemical … Continue reading Fats, Gods, and Fire