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‘Star Trek Into Darkness,’ A Review

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[Warning: ahead there be spoilers. If you haven't seen Star Trek Into Darkness yet, and if you don't want to know plot details, save this review for after you leave the theater. It will, I hope, explain why it is that you feel so cheated.]

Walking out after my showing of Star Trek Into Darkness I found myself eavesdropping on a couple, a man and a woman who looked just about old enough to remember the original series on television. I hardly know anything about Star Trek, the woman was saying, turning to her partner, and I’ve never been much of a fan. But I really liked this movie! When can we go see it again?

This is an understandable sentiment, and I have a lot of sympathy for it. Continue reading →

Off Topic, On ‘Star Trek’

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Off Topic, On Star Trek

I recognize that this is way far afield of what I usually write about, and I assure you that we’ll be getting back to the month of rhubarb very soon, but I wanted to point this out to all of you. It is Matthew Yglesias’s rankings of Star Trek stuff — films, series, episodes, villains, and crew members — from best to worst (or in some cases, from best to tenth best).

I point to it because I love Trek. With all my heart, I do. It’s been a topic of academic research for me. I’ve written about it here and here. And in a drawer somewhere, I have an article about Deep Space Nine as a critique of colonialism that I’d love to get published somewhere scholarly. Continue reading →

News, Updates, and Miscellany

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Good news! And some reminders, too.

The big item of interest — the thing that has driven me to metablogging — is that Elizabeth, author of the Bread and Honey blog and sometime guest blogger here, has agreed to become a regular Twice Cooked contributor. Which means that, beginning in the next couple of weeks, you’ll see her name pop up in the author field somewhat more regularly, unaccompanied by the italicized mini-biography that ordinarily prefaces posts by folks who are not me. Continue reading →

Sicilian Plum Liqueur

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Sicilian Plum Liqueur

I have a confession to make: in the past, my attitude toward folks who make liqueurs has sometimes edged more toward smug tolerance than genuine appreciation. Look at my science, I hear them exclaim to me, grinning enthusiastically. Then they put specimen jars full of off-colored liquid in my hands and encourage me to breath deeply. That’s great, I reply, matching their tone — making all the appropriate noises and nods. I’m sure it’ll be delicious when it’s done! But Continue reading →

Sincerely, Joe Biden

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I have an extraordinary amount of admiration for Joe Biden. He is, in so many ways, everything that is good and right about politics in the United States. The given Biden narrative is that he’s gaffe-prone — that he tends to wander off message, sometimes into dangerous territory. But it seems to me that if that is true, it’s a problem not with our Vice President, but with a political and media establishment who don’t know what to do with Continue reading →

Microlending at Kiva.org

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I posted this elsewhere online a couple of weeks ago. But it occurs to me that I ought to mention it here too. Kiva.org — the microlending website — is offering a special while-supplies-last promotion where, if you sign up for an account and start making loans, they’ll give you an extra $25.00 to get you going. It’s funded, they say, by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. He (or she) intended to give people one more incentive to Continue reading →

Mammon Calling

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Right then. You’d better sit down for this. Though I assume that most of you are already sitting, since you’re probably reading this on a computer or a tablet somewhere. And if you’re reading it on a phone and walking, I worry for your safety. So you should sit down most of all. Anyway: here’s the deal. The world isn’t ending. But Twice Cooked is changing. A little. As in, if you look over to the right of your browser Continue reading →

Twice Cooked: The Newest Nominee for “The Homies 2012″

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It looks, thanks to intrepid friend-of-the-blog Beth, like our own dear Twice Cooked has received a last-minute nomination for a 2012 Homie award in the category of “Best Food Photography on a Blog.”  I could hardly begrudge you for not wanting to go out of your way to make a whole new account on a whole new web site just to help me out.  But I would encourage you, really, to do just that. Go!  Make an account at theKitchn!  Continue reading →

(Honda) Insight Insights

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Honda Insight

This makes two non-food posts in a row. This trend will cease, I promise. Before you know it, I’ll be back to recipes, or write-ups of my local farmer’s market, or odes in verse to Manchego cheese, or what have you. But like I said with regards to our recent spate of inclement weather: sometimes life impinges on baking. And this time, by life, I mean a new car. Yeah. You heard what I said. Sarah and I have traded Continue reading →

Goodnight, Irene.

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Manayunk Train Tracks

Sometimes we cook.  And sometimes the world impinges. Hurricane Irene came through Saturday night, bringing with it wind and rain, and knocking out power on half our block.  The neighbors, like Sarah and I, came outside onto their porch to watch the spectacle.  They told us that the people on the news were calling it a hundred-year storm.  And they brought their little girl out to see what real rain looks like, figuring that she may never see its like Continue reading →