Ballard's Gourmet Ghetto

The North Shattuck Association in Berkeley, California, is an affiliation of businesses in an area known as the “Gourmet Ghetto” to locals. The area is full of restaurants, coffeehouses, bakeries and florists – all the things one needs to live the California dream. The most famous of all is Alice Walters’s legendary restaurant Chez Panisse, where one might spend $50 on lunch and spend the rest of the day marveling only at the food.

And for those whom the good life eludes in spite of all this, there are two dozen therapists in the neighborhood too.

Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood has its own burgeoning gourmet ghetto, located on NW 70th Street a block or so east of 15th Avenue NW (15th is Ballard’s main north-south artery; for Seattleites who don’t venture north of the ship canal, it’s where you end up if you cross the Ballard Bridge heading north.)

Old Town Ballard, shaped by building booms at the turn of the both the 20th and 21st centuries, is Ballard’s designated cool zone; NW 70th Street is decidedly un-cool – just a narrow street without interesting architecture or expensive homes.

An enthusiastic referral to the Honore Artisan Bakery led to the discovery of this easily overlooked half-block slice of heaven. Across from Honore sits A Caprice Kitchen, a small restaurant transformed by owner Anne Catherine Kruger from a greasy breakfast and lunch place into a neighborhood bistro serving dinner and weekend brunch. The third notable eatery is Delancey, which specializes in pizza from a wood-fired oven.

First things first: don’t bother trying to visit any of these three places on Monday or Tuesday – they’re all closed. It’s clear from both reviews and conversations with locals that there is plenty of business to support a full seven days of business, but the owner of each of these establishments has his or her hands in every croissant, every salad, and every pizza their customers eat.

Honore’s owner, Franz Gilbertson, does not make bread, so if you’re one of those Francophiles who believes a baguette just like they make in France is the ultimate baked good, don’t bother. If, on the other hand, you’re not afraid of a little butter, this place is for you. The croissants are flaky and never doughy. If pan au chocolat is your favorite, be warned: Gilbertson’s are great, but contain only a modest amount of chocolate – but it is intensely flavorful and very dark.

Two items keep people coming back to Honore. The first is the kouign (pronounced queen amman,) a crunchy, rich, buttery cake whose top is caramelized and salted. The kouign amman originates in Brittany, which accounts for the odd-looking name, which is Breton (the traditional language of Brittany,) not French. I imagine its creation, in 1865, sprang from the minds of people who found the shape, flavor and pleasure of the croissant to be insufficiently beguiling.

The adage that people buy with their eyes finds credence in Honore’s other signature item, the macaron. To the untrained eye, they look like pastel-colored sandwich cookies. About the circumference of an Oreo, but with a gently rounded top, the “cookie” part of these two-bite gems is actually a mix of egg whites, ground almonds and sugar. Their meringue-like texture is fragile, and combined with its ganache filling, they’re not easy to eat. Thankfully, the fun and pleasure involved in taking a bite and hurriedly passing what’s left to a companion quickly melts any anxiety that a bit of messiness may have aroused.

The beauty of the macaron – both from an eating and a marketing perspective – is that it’s hard to buy just one. Honore usually has ten or so flavors, each with a distinct color and flavor, and each with a complementary (or sometimes matching) filling inside. Pistachio, coconut, passion fruit, lavender, lemon,,,eventually you’ll want to try them all.
Also available at Honore: cheerful service, coffee made with care, and a list of special order desserts.

A Caprice Kitchen and Delancey have little in common. One, Delancey, opened in late 2009 after months of anticipation, thanks to co-owner Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table as well as the blog Orangette. Wizenberg’s husband, Brandon Petit, is the pizza man in the family. The sometimes harrowing process of opening a restaurant was well-chronicled in Wizenberg’s widely-read blog, creating a built-in customer base, which has rewarded the couple with long lines every night. The reviews have been excellent, and Petit seems to have found the perfect intersection of New York style pizza and the modern, local cuisine favored in Seattle. (And Wizenberg’s legendary chocolate chip cookies are a huge hit as well.)

And then there is A Caprice Kitchen. Chef-owner Anne Catherine Kruger (her initials are the same as her bistro’s) took a rather unconventional path to open her restaurant. After studying Physics at the University of North Carolina, Kruger decided that a life in the lab was not for her. So she set out to sea, cooking on large sailing ships and eco-tour boats, with time out to attend cooking school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. “I needed an anchor,” she said on a sunny afternoon at the tiny restaurant’s five-seat bar, “so I came back from Alaska and figured I should either get married or buy a house.” Her realtor knew the owner of the restaurant that would become Kruger’s, and suggested she might consider buying a business instead of a home.

The existing business, with the decidedly old-Ballard name “The Neighborhood Café,” served a small but loyal clientele breakfast and lunch basics seven days a week. Kruger’s vision was very much in the spirit of the French bistro. “I wanted to cook good food for people in a comfortable setting, like they were coming to my house,” she said. She gradually flipped the schedule on its head, so that today the restaurant is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday as well as weekend brunch. (Kruger took over in October of 2008; she cooked every meal for the first year, but has recently turned the brunch service over to a pair of skilled and trusted cooks. She still runs the kitchen solo at each dinner service.)

When asked about the timing of her opening – days before the economic crisis of 2008 came into full bloom– Kruger is sanguine. “I knew what I wanted to do, and sure, it was discouraging to do only six dinners some nights…but the brunch business was steady and I knew I could make it.” Her patience paid off – word of mouth has been kind to her, even if reviews have been a bit mixed.

Kruger has developed a friendly relationship with Delancey’s Brandon Petit – the two often visit after dinner service, sharing food and a beer or glass of wine and talking over the evening’s events. “He came over about a week before they opened and said ‘You better order extra food this week – we’re going to be busy and so will you.’” Petit was right; the months of anticipation fueled by Orangette had local foodies buzzing. A Caprice Kitchen benefited from the overflow, as not everyone in Seattle is apparently keen on waiting two hours for a seat in a pizza joint.

The food at A Caprice Kitchen is both simple and sophisticated. The simplicity arises from thoughtful preparation and an almost militant disregard for trendiness. The sophistication is largely a byproduct of Kruger’s belief in using local ingredients from local purveyors (a list of which is on each table.) This means frequent adjustments to the menu (and using no lemons!) And Kruger is willing to do without staples like tomatoes and onions if they’re not available locally.

All the talk of local ingredients prompted a question about Alice Waters, who has probably had more influence on how Americans eat than any other chef in the last half-century. “Oh, yes, a customer mentioned her when I first opened,” Kruger said. Joining her mailing list is recommended – though she doesn’t send menu updates every week, the restaurant hosts occasional beer- or wine-paring dinners. Having attended one of each, I recommend them highly. They are educational, convivial and delicious.

A short post in honor of opening day

Below is a short writing assigment from class. The idea: choose a subject about which I have some unique knowledge or perspective. Then, write what "everyone" knows about that subject followed by what I know. I chose baseball.

What everyone knows about baseball is that it’s impossibly dull and that each game lasts at least an hour longer than they’d like it to. The players are paid way too much, especially compared with teachers and firemen. Baseball fans and broadcasters obsess on numbers – obscure statistics with strange initials like RBI and ERA. The players aren’t very athletic, really; many are obviously overweight and are winded after running the 180 feet from home plate to second base. Ballplayers spit a lot and consume a bizarre amount of sunflower seeds and chewing gum. Some old-timers still chew and spit tobacco. Everyone knows about the World Series, which is played in late October, often in weather only a hockey player could love. Many of the greatest, most popular players have used performance-enhancing drugs; most lie about it, diminishing their greatness and popularity. Baseball is America’s Pastime.

What I know about baseball is that it is a game for patient people. It is a game best enjoyed during the summer, when the days or long and warm, the fans unhurried. The players’ skills, though not strictly speaking “athletic,” are remarkable and rare. The game requires freaky-good hand-eye coordination, great concentration and a degree of fearlessness. (It’s hard to hit a golf ball, but your opponent never hurls or hits the ball at you.) It is helpful to be fast and strong – but in many cases, one or the other will do.

The game’s most fundamental event – the pitch – is the reason for its apparently slow pace. The physical act of throwing a pitch is in itself a challenge; the process of deciding what sort of pitch to throw is a mental exercise, a guessing game. Throwing the decided upon pitch at the desired speed, with the desired movement, and having it arrive sixty and half feet away in the desired location is something only the best of the best can do consistently. What I know is that what many people consider the “action” – a ball in play – is not a discrete event, but the culmination of a series of events which can be viewed broadly (in relation to what happened earlier in the game or season) or narrowly (how the batter responded to the last curveball the pitcher threw.)

The word “statistics” is no longer adequate to describe what serious fans can know about the game. Today we are dealing with information about what happens on the field, not just a data set easily reproduced in a newspaper. Video cameras and a host of other equipment installed in each Major League ballpark record the velocity and movement (lateral and horizontal) of each pitch. All games are videotaped from many angles. The speed, trajectory and destination of each batted ball are logged. What I know is that understanding the game is a pastime unto itself and because of the good, funny, interesting writing of many fans, learning about the game has become almost more fun than actually watching it.

Armageddon Dreamin'

This is the full article; skip to "That Old Time Religion: Not So Old After All" heading if you've been reading bit by bit.

ARMAGEDDON DREAMIN’

AN UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT AT BIBLE STUDY

Each Wednesday at the small Presbyterian Church we attend, we gather for dinner. . Our pastor is a skillful cook, and aside from his fondness for split pea soup, has excellent taste as well. .

After dinner, the kids gather for youth group while the pastor leads the adults in Bible study. He handles Scripture as well as he handles a knife – and with no doctrinal analogs to that awful soup.

It’s the Full Monty of Bible studies: Genesis through Revelation, all sixty-six books of the Bible. Working through the Bible at this pace is a seven- to ten-year undertaking. Given the age of our members, several will likely have the pleasure of hearing at least some of the material from an even more authoritative source than our pastor, who holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. .

We’ve reached the book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Old Testament, part of what is known as the Torah, or Pentateuch. These first five books contain the creation story, Israel’s early history and Old Testament law. Plus plagues, violence and the source material for some Big Moments with Charlton Heston.

Just before our pastor read the beginning of Numbers 19, he warned us that he had an interesting aside related to this passage. Anticipation built as he read:

This ¹ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: ² "This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. ³ Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ While he watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and offal. ⁶ The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer. ⁷ After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. ⁸ The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening.

⁹ "A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They shall be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin. ¹⁰ The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the aliens living among them.

This passage is typical of much of the Old Testament: highly detailed and somewhat difficult for our modern minds. (Three chapters later, we encounter a talking donkey, which renders this passage rather dull.) To put it simply, Numbers 19 describes a purification ritual. The aside the pastor alluded to got my attention. “There are Fundamentalist Christians in Texas,” he said, “trying to breed red heifers in order to help bring about the Apocalypse.”

Not surprisingly, this little aside prompted a discussion about the nature of Fundamentalism. By the time I had completed the ten minute walk home, I decided I needed to learn more about the red heifer. .

I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THIS BEING DISTURBING

I turned to the Internet to find out more.

First, just to be clear, we’re not talking fire engine- or Clifford the Big Red Dog-red – just a solid-colored but infrequently occurring cow-red.

I learned of a heifer named Melody, who caused a stir in the mid-90s, until she turned out to be less than fully red. And a gentleman named Clyde Lott has been working for years to breed red heifers. We’ll learn more about both of these later, but for now, just know that candidate cows undergo detailed inspection and news of the results travels quickly.

I also discovered that the red heifer appears in only this passage. But this single mention has captivated the attention of some Christians because one interpretation links it directly to the timing of the Apocalypse. Under this interpretation, Armageddon will not occur until the Jews rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. But they cannot rebuild without a purification ritual. And there can be no ritual without a red heifer.

So some of the world’s Christians, having finished all the other work Jesus had in mind for them, have embarked on a truly global mission: helping God end the world.

WHAT IS FUNDAMENTALISM, AND WHAT WAS I THINKING?

The Fundamentalist Christian worldview holds that God’s work consists of both broad strokes (The Universe!) and amazing feats of precision (eight-hundred thousand words of scripture, each one literally true.)

Between 1897 and 1919, conservative American Christians debated and eventually agreed on the five key theological concepts that remain the basis of Fundamentalism. (They are: the verbal inerrancy of scripture, the divinity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the substitutionary theory of atonement and the physical return of Jesus.) With such a rigid starting point, there is little room for things like contemplation or finding common ground. A highly restrictive belief system, Fundamentalism is the spiritual equivalent of painting by the numbers, if the only numbers were one and two, and the only colors were black and white.

Fundamentalist scholars – many of them gifted teachers or brilliant linguists – are resolute in their search for definitive answers to every question. It can be argued that this is a religion not of faith, but of certainty –which may beg the question whether calling it a religion is appropriate.

(It is strikingly different from the Jewish Rabbinical tradition, in which the Rabbi’s role is interpreting the Jewish scriptures, not on telling the congregation precisely what the text means. Uncertainty, doubt and even arguing with God are built in.)

I dabbled in a gentle version of Fundamentalism as a teenager and young adult. While many of my friends now claim we were in it only for the girls, there was more to it than that. What we learned about friendship and character and commitment made us better people. And when “The Bible” pops up as a category on Jeopardy, look out.

Even at my most devout, I could not help but believe that our Big Brains must play a role in faith. What ultimately separated me from Fundamentalism had nothing to do with the truth of the five fundamentals. No, it was that this faith, supposedly the answer for all of humanity, made no allowance for the humanness of those it purported to save. With our innate desire to question, wonder, and discover now unneeded, the Leap of Faith was replaced by the Baby Step of Being Totally Sure. .

THAT OLD TIME RELIGION: NOT SO OLD AFTER ALL

Though the five fundamentals themselves were not new doctrines, the movement that galvanized around them amounted to a new and uniquely American version of Christianity. This bit of knowledge took me by surprise.

Largely because of its name, I assumed that Fundamentalism was the original version of Christianity, (It doesn’t get much more fundamental than the idea that understanding the Bible does not require interpretation -- but simply the ability to read and the willingness to treat each word as literal truth.) This was of course a profoundly ignorant on my part, since printed Bibles and people who could read have only been widely present for about a quarter of the time Christianity has existed. .

To illustrate the crux of the Fundamentalist approach, let’s revisit the Pentateuch. These first five books of the Old Testament are the foundation of the three great Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

As long ago as the early 16^th century, when printed Bibles were still quite rare, scholars began to question the notion that the Pentateuch was written by Moses himself. Up to that point, it was widely believed that Moses had written the five books and that further, the original author of each book of the Bible was inspired directly by God and was in essence taking dictation.

Well, in 1520 a German scholar named Carlstadt noticed that the passage dealing with the death of Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, was from a literary perspective consistent with the rest of Deuteronomy. Compared to parting the Red Sea, writing of one’s own death may not seem like much, but Carlstadt’s argument that Moses was not the sole author of the Pentateuch prevailed.

And so it went for the next few centuries as Bible scholars applied the techniques of literary and textual criticism to the Bible. The approach became known as “Modernism,” which sounds to me like a much more recent development than “Fundamentalism.”

Modernism was an affront to conservative American theologians. They rejected its assertion that the Bible was more a collection of works than a coherent, unified document. Culturally, this rejection’s net effect was to unify Fundamentalists around three key ideas: exclusivity, separation and hostility towards science in general and Darwinism in particular.

Those three concepts remain central to the way today’s Fundamentalists relate to the world, and the way the world relates to them. Pat Robertson responds to the Haiti earthquake with talk of a “pact with the devil.” Jon Stewart responds to Robertson with mockery and scorn. (Moderate Christians are just embarrassed.) So there is a huge divide not just between Fundamentalists and our secular culture, but between Fundamentalists and other Christians.

(We are almost ready to revisit the red heifer.)

Even the earliest Christians believed that Jesus’ return was imminent, as do today’s Fundamentalists. This has spawned both intensive study of the relevant Bible passages and a multi-million dollar market for Apocalyptically themed books, movies and seminars. Such products fuel increases in both Anxiety and Donations.

That Jesus has not yet returned drives those awaiting she Second Coming deeper and deeper into the study of Bible prophecies, creating a frenzied increase in the amount of material available. Hal Lindsey, who wrote the end times bestseller The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970, has spent the subsequent forty years studying and teaching about Bible prophecy. As I write this, I am listening to “The Hal Lindsey Report” via streaming video from his Web site. Today’s theme: how modern communication is evidence that the end is near. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophesy.

The red heifer fits neatly into this pattern of escalation: Since now innocuous developments (like bar codes and the European Union) were not, in fact, omens of Armageddon, deeper study is required. And that’s where the red heifer comes in.

HEIFER ENCOUNTER I: MELODY…CLOSE BUT NO APOCALYPSE

Melody the heifer was born in 1996 in Israel and there was much rejoicing. It was believed for a time that she might be the perfect red heifer many had been awaiting. And by “people,” I mean a peculiar alliance of a small number of American Fundamentalist Christians and an equally small number of conservative Israeli Jews.

According to the Web site of the Calvary Chapel of Truckee, California, it was determined upon closer inspection that Melody had black eyelashes. This made her a better-looking cow overall, but unsuitable for use in the ritual.

But even here there is controversy: in an article in JWeekly.com, on online Jewish news source serving the San Francisco area, Melody’s flaw was not black eyelashes, but a white tail. So apparently whatever common interest Jews and Christians have in an actual red heifer materializing, they are at literal opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to livestock assessment. Apparently we can’t all just get along.

HEIFER ENCOUNTER II: MR. LOTT GOES TO JERUSALEM

In 1989, according to the Los Angeles Times, Clyde Lott – a rare breed himself, being both a rancher and a preacher – “”heard from a preacher that the apocalypse might be approaching.” For whatever reason, this did not inspire Lott to get his house in order, but to export red heifers to Israel.

"A seed was planted in me, and once there, that seed didn't leave me alone," Lott told the Times, whose next move was to take a trip to Jackson, Mississippi, the state capital. There he chatted with the state’s top agricultural officer, who connected Lott with a United States trade envoy in Greece, who eventually helped Lott reach a nonprofit group in Israel, called the Temple Institute, whose purpose is to rebuild the temple.

Meetings were held, plans were hatched, but efforts to export and then breed lots and lots of Lott’s red heifers have thus far proved futile. Flying a planeload of cattle from the United States to Israel is fraught with bureaucratic headaches. But Lott’s quest continues; he’s certain the red heifer will appear, and he’d like it to be one of his.

NOW, THE SCARY PART, AND SOME HOPE

Some of the eight hundred thousand words in the Bible are fairly clear (thou shalt not kill, love thy neighbor, etc.) But we struggle mightily with the Simple and Clear, so much so that we often choose to skip it, focusing instead on the Obscure and Divisive. Frustrated with the challenge of adding two and two, we’ve moved on to quadratic equations.

Attraction to the obscure is understandable. Such things add a touch of mystery to life and provide a not insignificant number of jobs. Being free of open sores and human death, the red heifer passage leaves room to ponder the Apocalypse without confronting the human suffering that accompanies it.

To most of us, Clyde Lott’s efforts to produce a perfect red heifer look like a big waste of time. Even if Clyde’s dream comes true, it’s a huge leap to get from “there is a red heifer” to “Clyde’s cow is now in Israel.”

But perhaps we should think a bit more about such ventures. .

You might say that Temple Mount, the real estate on which the Temple is to be rebuilt, is on a very desirable corner, one currently controlled by the competition. The oldest known Muslim building, the Dome of the Rock is located there today. So the Temple can only be rebuilt if this holy Muslim site is destroyed. No matter what you believe about the end times, this would be a Step Backward for human relations.

And the red heifer, unfortunately, is not the only way Fundamentalist Christians are attempting to hasten Armageddon. They are also sending money to Zionist groups in Israel, for the express purpose of building new settlements, because fulfilling all the Biblical prophecies can only happen if Israel is home exclusively to Jews.

Waiting is a recurring theme for many practicing Christians (and has a place in other religions as well.) The eagerness with which we await Christmas is not just about unwrapping gifts; it has a spiritual dimension as well. And Lent, with its emphasis on fasting and personal sacrifice is rich in contemplative anticipation. If this Apocalyptic Eagerness was only about waiting, there would be much less to say about it.

But the literalist view of the end times includes death for what in today’s world is billions of unbelievers. Of course it is possible that the world will end this way; in fact, it could happen before my next birthday. But wishing for it and believing we ought to facilitate it is a long way from hoping for a new bike or giving up chocolate for Lent. It’s nothing short of cruel.

A more hopeful approach is found in the words of W. Eugene March, Professor of Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, who writes, “My experience leads me to the conviction that the practice of love, not the defense of doctrine, is the primary challenge for Christians (and the adherents of other religious traditions as well) in the world today.”

This approach, very unlikely to lead to war, provides a simple roadmap for people of faith to do Good, keep Busy and be Happy. No matter how much time we have left.

ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN GET A GOOD STEAK AROUND HERE?

One last thing: if you ever find yourself walking along King George Street in Jerusalem, be sure to make time for a meal at the Red Heifer Steakhouse. The beef is Kosher, house-aged and presumably from Ordinary-Looking Cows.

People You Should Know About: George Saunders

George Saunders / American / 1958-

I am taking a nonfiction writing class at the University of Washington; it started in early January and goes through June. It's been great so far -- good teachers, interesting classmates and lots of stimulation.

Last week we were assigned two essays by George Saunders. I had heard of him vaguely as he is an occasional contributor to The New Yorker (most often in "Shouts and Murmurs," the short humor piece in most issues.)

Eventually we will write our own story based on one of the two extended essays we read, which I expect to be quite challenging. For now, here is the short piece I wrote about Saunders's work, which I thought was great and worth anyone's time.

Though very different in style, the two George Saunders essays “The Braindead Megaphone” and “Buddha Boy” both reveal a writer with an eye for detail, a hunger for truth and a rich inner life.

Written in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, “The Braindead Megaphone” is a logical, hilarious and terrifying indictment of public debate, especially that part of it manifested in the media. One notable and brief paragraph reveals what is at stake: “A culture’s ability to understand the world and itself is critical to its survival. But today we are led into the arena of public debate by seers whose main gift is their ability to compel people to continue to watch them.”

Whether one favors O’Reilly or Olbermann, it’s hard to deny one of the central assertions of Saunders’s essay, which is that much of what passes for discourse in just commerce. And the result in not pretty or helpful.

Saunders uses a mixture of logic and humor, along with an almost sneaky building-block approach. The essay opens with a brief meditation about “a guy standing in a field in the year 1200.” At first we think this may be nothing more than a humorous piece about our crazy-making high-tech lifestyle. Then, by the end of the second numbered section, some of us are thinking about George W. Bush. By the end of the third section, it’s a full-on “holy crap” moment: we’ve been sucked in.

“Buddha Boy” is twice as long as “Megaphone” and rather than tackling an issue, is an almost entirely chronological narrative of a reporting trip Saunders took to Nepal to see a boy sitting still and meditating, which he had apparently been doing for seven months. As in “Megaphone,” Saunders lulls the reader into thinking the piece is about something less significant than it turns out to be. The first several pages chronicle Saunders’s decision to accept the assignment and the trip to Nepal. Complaints about air travel and the inconveniences of visiting the developing world are not new, but Saunders uses humor, details and creative imagery (“…a button on the overhead console marked Minty Water.”)

As the journey to see Buddha Boy unfolds, Saunders treats us to great descriptions of the sights and sounds (along with the wonder and squalor) of Nepal. Along the way, we get several looks at Saunders’s inner life, and we learn that he’s significantly more open-minded and curious – even eager to believe -- than we expected.

Among the more interesting things about this essay is the juxtaposition of a deep and mysterious subject with the very linear narrative the author uses. Profoundly effective, this approach allows the reader to relax and easily follow the time-arc of the story, leaving the mind and heart open to the fun surprises tucked neatly into the meaning-arc.

73 days...really?

I'm no stranger to profound, extended periods characterized by low productivity. Long gaps between blog posts are somewhat reflective of my overall productivity, but in this case, seventy- three days of blog silence (or 'postilence' as I like to call it) isn't all bad.

For starters, I have begun some posts that have potential to be interesting, but they each require additional research and time, and it's been a buy time, making that process challenging to complete. Posts in this category include:

• a writeup of Ballard's "Gourmet Ghetto," located on NW 70th Street just east of 15th Avenue NW. Packed into one little block are the Honore Artisan Bakery (fabulous, charming French baker) Delancey (cool new pizza place) and A Caprice Kitchen (great, interesting website.) And there's an umbrella store, of all things, where you can buy umbrellas, rent umbrellas and buy a couple of patented umbrella innovations directly from the inventor!
• observations from a wine tasting trip to Walla Walla, which we took in October to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. It was a great trip...we learned a lot about wine, met some winemakers, bought lots of wine and had some great food. Really fun.
• Starbucks Via update...I finally got my first shipment of Via in early December. Some of it became a Christmas gift, but I still have enough packets left to do a modest craft project...any suggestions?

In addition, I've picked up some interesting coffee-related work at Sodcutter Communications, which has been very interesting and just time consuming enough to make finding writing time a bit more difficult.

There are also many issues of the New Yorker to catch up on, and I had a great time reading Carl Hiaasen's "Skinny Dip" and have several books I'm working through now -- Matt Miller's Dead Ideas book I mentioned in a previous post, "Manhood for Amateurs" by Michael Chabon and a very interesting biography of Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame.

Beginning in early January, I'll be a student in a nonfiction writing certificate program offered by the UW Extension program. So I'll have to write, and I'm optimistic that I will be able to "repurpose" work between the blog and class.

Happy New Year!

Sodcutter's influence grows: Steven Colbert weighs in on Mayo v. Miracle Whip

Last week on the Colbert Report, Steven, having no doubt read my post on Miracle Whip, defended Mayo's honor with so many puns it made my head spin. See it here.

People You Should Know About: Matt Miller

Matt Miller / American / 1961-

For several months now, I’ve been part of a group of former Starbucks employees who gather weekly for coffee, conversation and encouragement. I’m happy to report that the group has begun to shrink, as several have now found jobs. A couple weeks ago, it was just Kristin Anderson and I. We met at Herkimer Coffee up on Phinney Ridge – a local coffeehouse I’ve been enjoying fairly regularly recently. Good coffee, nice people, and a fun little roasting operation right in the cafe.

When we were finished with coffee, Kristin, who lives in the neighborhood, suggested we visit the local bookseller, Santoro’s Books . I’m a sucker for bookstores, and I do my best to buy local whenever possible, even if it costs a bit more. (And many local bookstores, Santoro’s included, have discount programs that reward you after a certain number of purchases – the discounts aren’t as deep as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, but you essentially get the eleventh book free once you’ve purchased ten.)

When I visit a bookstore for the first time, I like to focus on the feature tables and newer releases, which gives me a sense of how the bookseller perceives their clientele and what books they deem worthy of their customers’ attention. (If I see too many Glenn Beck “books,” for example, I’ve learned that it’s best to slowly head for the door, keeping my eye on the help and my fellow shoppers.) I’m happy to report that Santoro’s has a great selection, with lots of local interest titles, as well as a helpful, knowledgeable staff.

One of the titles that caught my eye was Matt Miller’s “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity.” The title sounded a little cutesy, especially the whole “unleash a new prosperity” bit – it seemed like it might be another happy talk business book. Then I glanced at the dead ideas Miller chose to write about, and the book suddenly had my attention. The dead ideas are:

1. The Kids Will Earn More Than We Do
2. Free Trade Is "Good" (No Matter How Many People Get Hurt)
3. Your Company Should Take Care of You
4. Taxes Hurt the Economy (and They're Always Too High)
5. Schools Are a Local Matter
6. Money Follows Merit

If it were up to me, “Journey was a great band” would also get a chapter, but I think that might distract and offend a few readers. I’m only about sixty pages into the book, but have found it riveting and occasionally alarming. My concern about the future -- given the state of the global economy, the seeming impossibility of our leaders to act, and the odd insistence on the part of so many that “American dominance” is a viable starting point from which to engage the world – is growing weekly. The structure of the book, which lays out the problems associated with all six dead ideas before the whole unleashing of prosperity thing happens will no doubt heighten my anxiety in the weeks ahead. (I’ve thought about skipping ahead after each chapter, but I’ve pretty much decided to trust that Miller wrote it this way for a reason.)

In the introduction to the book, which you can read in its entirety here, Miller lays out three steps for “breaking free of dead ideas,” which we would all do well to apply in many areas of our lives. They are:

1. Identify the dead ideas that matter. We all believe some pretty wacky things; some of them just help us get through the day, while others probably retard progress, making us less effective. We need some disciplined thought and a little courage to identify the dead ideas that impede progress.
2. Understand each dead idea’s “story.” It is useful to understand why we believe certain things, where the idea came from, what has changed since the idea was broadly adopted? And whose interest does the dead idea serve?
3. Reach for new (and paradoxical) ways of thinking. This often involves asking questions people don’t want to answer and proposing solutions (higher taxes!!) people don’t want to consider. But it’s often the only way to fight through a dead idea and make changes.

I’ll devote a few brief posts in the weeks ahead to some of the ideas in the book. Please leave a comment or email me if any of the six dead ideas are of particular interest.

Matt Miller is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (one of those lefty outfits) and the host of “Left, Right and Center” on NPR. He worked as an aide in the Clinton White House.