Not Just A Mom

Garry Marshall, Happy Days creator and Pretty Woman director, dies at 81

Our new survey data is clear:

Most people have not received any education about what consent is, what it looks like, or how to do it. This needs to change. 

It’s been nearly a year since I moved from London to Burbank, and in that time, I’ve been slowly iterating through various online tutorials to be better at charcoal grilling, something I had almost no experience with when I got here.

I started by buying a low-cost, well-reviewed kettle grill, a cheap instant-read thermometer, and a pair of silicone mitts (the first pair tore quickly, but the second pair is a keeper).

Suitably armed, I began shopping at my local family-owned grocer for meats. After trying a few different cuts, I settled upon the tri-tip, an iconic, versatile California cut with a lot of character, which comes in big, thick, juicy slabs from my local butcher.

The basic grill techniques were easy enough to master: using a chimney starter, I get my coals up to temperature (I have tried a lot of different charcoal, and am currently mostly using mesquite or oak). I pour the coals out on one half of the grill, leaving the other half empty, and put a smoker box filled with water soaked apple-wood chips on top of them, then put the grill down.

Until Saturday, my basic meat-prep technique was to bring the steaks up to room temperature while crusting them with rock salt. I also had some moderate luck with a simple bourbon marinade (1/3 bourbon, 1/3 soy sauce, 1/3 brown mustard, 1 tsp of crushed garlic, 1 pinch black petter) that I put in a freezer bag with the steak overnight before cooking.

But then Madeline Ashby came for a visit and, having tried my steaks (and enjoyed them!) pointed me to the Serious Eats Food Lab guide to grilled steak, which changed my life.

The key lesson from this guide was to leave the steaks uncovered in the fridge for 4-5 days before cooking them. This dehydrated the outer third, allowing for a quicker cooking time, which left the center pink and juicy while the outside was nicely crusted and blackened. The tri-tip’s tapering shape yields a variety of done-nesses, from medium rare to well-done, which was great for serving a large group of people.

I cooked the steaks over the grill’s cool zone (opposite the side with the coals), flipping and salting them every 5-10 minutes, until they got up to about 135F, then gave them 2-3 minutes on each side over the hot zone to finish the crust.

The difference was astounding. I literally have never eaten a better piece of meat, neither in a 5-star Vegas steakhouse nor in a down-home favorite Texas grill. I can still taste it.

I’m going to keep playing with this technique. I don’t know if 4.5 days was optimal, or if I could get similar results with a shorter drying-out period. I also want to try the marinade in combination with the drying technique, though I worry that adding liquid to the steaks will defeat the purpose of partially dehydrating them.

There are many other grilling tips on Serious Eats (my next experiment will be their dry-rub ribs), and López-Alt has a well-regarded cookbook I want to check out.

In the meantime, here’s my gospel for your summer grilling: dry those thick steaks out a little before cooking ‘em. You’ll thank me.

The Food Lab’s Definitive Guide to Grilled Steak [J Kenji López-Alt/Serious Eats]

Okay, so this is an explanation of why the Danish numbers doesn’t seem to make sense above 49.

Example ‘The fifty-seventh’ (57th) in Danish is ‘den syvoghalvtredsindstyvende’.  Which means 'the seven and half threes twentieth’. 

In old times people would use scores (20 of a kind) just as we use dousins (12 of a kind) today. In Danish a score is called 'en snes’. So if you had three scores (tre snese) you’d have sixty, and 'tre snese’ later morphed into ‘tres’ (60). Now, if you had 1 + 1 + ½ score you would have fifty. Notice that the third score is half. Therefore Danes called this amount ‘halvtredje snes’ which means ‘half-third score’, and this morphed into ‘halvtreds’ (50).

Table 3rd = tredje, 4th = fjerde, 5th = femte 2 + ½ snes = halvtredje snes  = halvtreds (50) 3 snese      = tre snese           = tres (60) 3 + ½ snes = halvfjerde snes = halvfjerds (70) 4 snese      = fire snese          = firs (80) 4 + ½ snes = halvfemte snes = halvfems (90)

If a number above 49 is an ordinal number (51st, 57th, 65th, 82nd) the number gets the suffix ‘-indstyvende’ (tyvende means twentieth) If the number is between 40 and 49 it gets the suffix ‘-tyvende’ Though it is also permitted to use the newer forms of the ordinal numbers, which are mostly found in speech: Fyrrende, halvtredsende, tressende, halvfjerdsende, firsende, halvfemsende

Every few months, Cool Chicks from History puts together a list of women missing from Wikipedia.  Wikipedia is often the first source people check when looking for information, but Wikipedia has a documented gender problem   (NYT 2011, Atlantic 2015, Smithsonian Mag 2016).  More men than women edit Wikipedia and that leads to a imbalance in what topics are included and how detailed the entries are.

“Why don’t you just write the articles then, Cool Chicks from History?  Why do you try to crowdsource it?”  Well, mostly because it takes about as much time to write this list as it does to write a single detailed new Wikipedia entry.  Also crowdsourcing encourages more people to participate in shaping Wikipedia.

Dozens of new articles have been created after a woman was listed as a Cool Chick from History Missing from Wikipedia.  Some examples: Helen Octavia Dickens, Rosa Maria Hinojosa de Balli, Eunice Dennie Burr, Hazel Garland, Katharine Harley.  This amazing list of first female physician by country was created after Cool Chicks from History asked the mysterious Wikipedia editors out there to create one.  That is a great resource that didn’t exist before.  In April, a list of first female lawyers by country was created by a tumblr user.

If you are interested in learning how to edit Wikipedia articles, there is a tutorial here.  There is also a place for friendly Wikipedia help here.

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Lucie Aubrac (French politician) has a Wikipedia page, but it needs citations and expansion.  Guardian obituary, NYT obituary, English language biography,English language autobiography.   

Emma Fielding Baker (Mohegan medicine woman) does not have a Wikipedia page, but she is mentioned on the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame page and on the page for Gladys Tantaquidgeon.  More information: 1, 2, 3, 4

Helene Thomas Bennett (US scientist) does not have a Wikipedia page, but she is mentioned on the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame page.  More information: 1, 2, 3, 

Orapin Chaikarn (Thai Member of Parliament) does not have a Wikipedia page. 

Caterina Cybo (Italian noble) has an Italian Wikipedia page, but no English language Wikipedia page. She is mentioned on the Wikipedia pages of her father, mother, and husband.

Acha of Deira (Ancient English princess) does not have a Wikipedia page, but she is mentioned on the pages of her relatives: 1, 2, 3.  More information: 1, 2,3 

Caroline Hazard (US college president) does not have a Wikipedia page, but she is mentioned on the page for Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame Women Inductees.  More information: 1, 2, 3 

Aurora Jiménez de Palacios (Mexican politician) has a Spanish language Wikipedia page, but no English language page.  More information: 1, 2

Juanita Larrauri (Argentine politician) has a Spanish language Wikipedia page, but no English language page. More information: 1, 2

Mabel Catherine Malherbe (South African politician) has a French language Wikipedia page and an Afrikan Wikipedia page, but no English language page.  More information 

Marthe Simard (French politician) has a French language Wikipedia page, but no English language page.

Virginia Thrall Smith (US activist) does not have a Wikipedia page, but she is mentioned on the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame page.  More information: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Aristodama of Smyrna (Greek poet) has a Wikipedia page, but more information should be added.

Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah (Pakistani politician) has a Wikipedia page, but it needs sources and expansion.  More information: 1, 2

Takahashi Mizuko (Japanese physician) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information: 1, 2, 3

Anyte of Tegea (Greek poet) has a Wikipedia page, but more information should be added.

Tokyo Women’s Medical University does not have a Wikipedia page, but it is mentioned on the Yoshioka Yayoi page and the list of medical schools in Japan page.

Leonor Teles (Portuguese queen consort) has a Wikipedia page, but it needs work (and references).  More information: 1, 2, 3

Augusta Lewis Troup (US activist) does not have a Wikipedia page, but she is mentioned on the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame page.  More information: 1, 2, 

National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses has a Wikipedia page, but it needs some work.  Not sure why the header is an acronym.  The organization was founded by Martha Minerva Franklin and Estelle Massey Osborne  later served as president.  More information: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Martha Minerva Franklin (US nurse) does not have a Wikipedia page, but she is mentioned on the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame page.  More information: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 

Estelle Massey Osborne (US nurse) does not have a Wikipedia page.  She is mentioned on the timeline of nursing history and the NYU nursing pages.  More information: 1, 2 

Women in Pharmacy should have an overview page like Women in Medicine. There doesn’t even seem to be a pharmacist category on Wikipedia.  Ella P. Stewart, Julia Pearl Hughes, and Cora Dow could be included on this timeline.  

Zada Mary Cooper (US pharmacist) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information: 1, 2, 3, 4

Elizabeth Gooking Greenleaf (US pharmacist) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information: 1, 2,

Susan Hayhurst (US pharmacist) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information: 1, 2, 3, 4

Anna Louise James (US pharmacist) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information: 1, 2

Mary Putnam (US physician) has a Wikipedia page, but it fails to mention that she was the first woman to graduate from a US school of pharmacy.

Pioneering female lawyers some of whom could be added to the list of first female lawyers by country:

Naima Ilyas al-Ayyubi (Egyptian lawyer) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information

Khunying Ram Phrommobon Bunyaprasop (Thai lawyer) does not have a Wikipedia page.

Ekaterina Fleischitz (Russian lawyer) has a Russian language Wikipedia page, but no English language page.

Rosa Ginossar (Israeli lawyer) doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.  More information

Myrthes Gomes de Campos (Brazilian lawyer) has a Portuguese language Wikipedia page, but no English language page.   More information

Maria Hagemeyer (German judge) does not have a Wikipedia page.   More information

Tabitha Ann Holton (US lawyer) has a Wikipedia page, but it needs expansion and sources.  More information: 1, 2

Hwang Yun-Suk (Korean judge) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information.

Chalorjit Jittarutta (Thai judge) does not have a Wikipedia page. More information: 1

Ai Kume (Japanese lawyer) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information 

Masako Nakata (Japanese lawyer) does not have a Wikipedia page.   More information

Efharis Petridou (Greek Lawyer) does not have a Wikipedia page.   More information

Olga Petit (French lawyer) does not have a Wikipedia page.  Photo

María Asunción Sandoval de Zarco (Mexican lawyer) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information:  English, Spanish

Yoshiko Sanfuchi (Japanese judge) does not have a Wikipedia page.   More information

Freda Slutzkin (Israeli lawyer) doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.  More information

Sri Widoyati Wiratmo Soekito (Indonesian judge) does not have a Wikipedia page.   More information

Thereza Grisólia Tang (Brazilian judge) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information

Marjorie M. Whiteman (US lawyer) has a German language Wikipedia page, but no English language page.  She is also mentioned on the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame page.  More information: 1, 2, 3

Madeline Wookey (South African lawyer) does not have a Wikipedia page.  More information: 1, 2