Sunday, January 27, 2008

Ruminations

A friend once challenged me:
"If you can't afford broad cast, do narrow cast!"

Television is broadcast. One source presents itself to many.
What is Narrowcast?
My friend meant one talks with a selected few, i.e.: use direct mail which would avoid the waste of TV ads,
Now he might mean social networks, or You Tube, or podcasts, or blogs.

At which point Narrowcast becomes: "Many talking to a self selected number between few and many" with a chance that those many might talk back.
So the problem is now: get the message to those who want to hear and give them a means to respond. And let everyone listen in.
Many talk with many.
This I like.
--ml
updated in a vain attempt to improve the quality of thought. 2/29/08
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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Steps to Paradise # 27

Crisis Avoidance is better than Crisis Response if you want many happy returns.
--ml
h/t Matt

Of course you have to be right.

That is very hard.

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

Bitter Truth

They cover politics as if the Media aren't part of the process and as if reporters, pundits, editors, publishers, producers, and anchors have no influence on anything---not on the way stories are covered, not on what stories are covered, not on what people think about the stories.
--ml
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Oliebollen

Little oily balls.

Direct translation. Not so appetizing in the midst of our current anti-fat bigotry.

Fruit doughnut? Only a little better.

Apple Fritter, suggests the MacGear.

And I accept it as descriptive and inviting. For a translation.

But Oliebollen is the name as this is the progenitor of all doughnuts: A yeast raised sweet dough, filled with fruit, and deep fried, traditionally eaten in the Netherlands at New Years since the late sixteenth century. Approximately guessed.

For certain it attracted the notice of that famed historian Diedrich Knickerbocker who describes a a high tea among the Dutch settlers in the Hudson valley as including:

Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks—a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known in this city, except in genuine Dutch families.
-- Washington Irving, Hist of New York,
Chapter III

Thus Oliebollen are as native to this country as the Dutch farmers and merchants who built Wall street.

The Congressional Club Cookbook of 1927 is the earliest recipe I have. My transcription (possibly not verbatim)


13 oz flour7oz currants
1/2 pint milk4 oz raisins
3 eggs1 1/2 oz citron chopped fine
1 1/2 oz yeast1-2 sour apples chopped fine
2 oz butter
Mix above in bowl. Stir well. Let stand 30 minutes. Drop by spoonfuls into hot oil. Cook slowly until brown.
-- Mrs. Jacob Steketer

But, as with any traditional dish there are many variants' only one of which will be acceptable to the one who grew up with a particular recipe. The rest may pick and choose and use the result as a springboard to their own version.

For your browsing pleasure we offer a round half dozen out of the myriad your search engine will find:

  • Oliebollen
  • Oliebollen (Dutch Doughnuts)
  • Oliebollen
  • International Recipes: Oliebollen
  • Oliebollen -- New Year's Eve Doughnuts
  • Recipe for Cooking Olie Bollen

  • Although essentially the same in the main ingredients, variation appears in the fruit used, how it is incorporated with the dough and the consistency of the dough which may be a batter or a soft, but moldable dough, or any likely point between. In some recipes the dough wraps around the filling rather like Bao. This requires dough to work. If the fruit is mixed in with the flour and liquid, then a batter consistency is good, though the dough still works.

    Dum Luk's, but of course, does it other.

    Dum Luk's Oliebollen
    1 cup starter (or yeast)3 eggs
    1 cup cream2 tbl Butter, melted
    1 cup Flournutmeg
    1 tart apple grated1/2 cup filberts,chop fine
    sugar
    Mix all of the above, except sugar, in a bowl. Adjust flour until you have a good batter. Deep fry in your Christmas goose schmaltz, or lard, at 350of (180oc) until brown. Turn halfway through. Drain and cool slightly. Then roll the oliebollen in sugar. Powdered or granular as you wish.

    Goed Niewe Jaar!

    --ml
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    Friday, January 04, 2008

    Iowa News

    Hubris Sonic at the Group News Blog nails it:

    Thursday, January 3, 2008

    Iowa Wrap Up

    Total Voter Turnout (approximate)

    356,000

    Percentage of total vote
    24.5% Obama
    20.5% Edwards
    19.8% Clinton
    11.4% Huckabee (R)


    All else is spin.
    --ml
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