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May 23, 2004
Ice Cream Headache
All about ice cream headaches.
Posted by elise at 5:51 PM
May 20, 2004
Sacramento - Biba's Restaurant
Biba Caggiano is the proprietress and head chef of Biba Restaurant in Sacramento, California. Although Sacramento never had much of a culinary reputation, that's changing. Biba Restaurant is exquisitely good. She's written seven cookbooks and starred in her own TV show on the Discovery Channel. She's even won a James Beard award.
It is well deserved. I ate there for lunch one day this week. The restaurant was half empty at 12:30 (where the heck was everybody? the food is excellent!). I had the special - halibut and scallops with fresh diced tomatoes poached in parchment. It was delicious and so was their basic green salad, one of the best basic greens salads I have ever eaten anywhere.
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Posted by elise at 12:03 AM
May 15, 2004
Why is Chicken So Cheap?
A good case for free-range chicken. For more info, go here.
For a great case for range-fed beef, go here. Hat tip to Jen.
Posted by elise at 7:47 PM
May 10, 2004
Violent Behavior - Learned or Genetic?
Caught this in Sharon Begley's column in Friday's Wall St. Journal. (click here for full article, available for a few days). Stanford University's Robert Sapolsky has observed that when the most aggressive, dominant members of a baboon clan are removed, the culture of the remaining baboons changes to become more peaceful. These changes persist even as new generations come into the clan either from birth or from other clans.
The most recent evidence of culture among animals comes from studies of olive baboons. It stands out because the learned behavior is so at odds with how badly baboons customarily behave.Baboons tend to be fierce and aggressive, and the "Forest Troop" in Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve fits the mold. Males fought over everything (grub, girls ...) and nothing. But in 1982, the aggressive males began raiding the garbage pit of a nearby tourist lodge, gorging on rotten meat. Almost half of the troop's males -- and all the aggressive ones -- died of tuberculosis, leaving, as Stanford University biologist Robert Sapolsky puts it, "a cohort of atypically unaggressive survivors."
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Posted by elise at 10:38 AM | Comments (4)
May 8, 2004
Steve Peskind 1951-2004
To my dear friend Steve Peskind,
I just called your home and had a long talk with Bob who told me that you passed away on Thursday. My dear radiant Steve, I don't think it has quite sunk in yet that I won't be hearing your bubbling voice or seeing your laughing eyes as you impart your words of playful wisdom. What serendipity it was to meet you so many years ago at one of Elisabeth's parties - you all dressed in white like a happy little guru - Baba Ganesh. Our sitting in ET's room and your teaching me a meditation to transform the anger I had over some guy. Do you remember?
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Posted by elise at 1:33 PM