#fanmouse

It's an interesting thought, but I would think if someone had a GPS blocker that could affect the drivers it would be affecting my GPS too, which it definitely isn't. There is some kind of weird stuff in apps about my building, but that's not uncommon in Chicago, to be honest. If you try to enter my building number into certain apps, it sends you to the alley rather than my front door or it sends you to a nearby park. My office moved about a year ago but the old office address would do the same -- entering the address would send you to the loading dock instead of the actual entrance. I used to have to walk to a nearby Dunkin Donuts and call a ride from there. Especially in downtown, Lyft will sometimes try to tell drivers to go miles out of their way to get to a certain destination that's only 10 minutes away. I've had drivers go "This is fucked up, you don't care if I go a better way, do you?" and I've had to go "Yeah uh, this isn't the first time, go ahead."

What's so strange to me is that it's not simply a matter of drivers being unable to find my address -- that's part of it for sure, but other aspects include restaurants regularly getting so far in the weeds they cancel my order, restaurants delivering unbelievably incorrect orders (I once got three orders of wings instead of the wings, pasta, and sandwich I ordered), and drivers delivering to obviously and visibly wrong addresses, like the guy who delivered to an address with both a different street number and a different street name, a block away. There have been at least two car crashes. One time, the power went out at the grocery store my Instacart driver was shopping at, literally as he was in the process of paying. I got a message that the shop had been completed and he was on his way to me! And then he cancelled the order and I had to call Instacart to find out why! I've had drivers call and text to say they've arrived and my phone simply never received either despite never having reception problems.

I'd also chalk this up to me living in the downtown area of one of the largest cities in the country, where things are just...more stressful and complicated for everyone. Downtown restaurants are under more pressure to put out more food faster, this is true. But this doesn't happen to anyone else I know. I have friends who live in my building and never have these problems. At this point the fact that I order delivery like, twice a year might be causing some bias, because I would imagine if you order food weekly the odds of you having this kind of issue every time goes way down, but I don't have either the budget or the mental health to risk it.

German who lived in Munich for 25 years here. Am wheezing in horror at this pie abomination. Also the opinion of locals about the Wiesn (yeah, nobody but tourists says Oktoberfest, sorry) is both "horribly overpriced spectacle for tourists, work makes us go each year, we hate it, make it stop" and "that's OUR party, of course we're going, it's tradition, here are seventeen paragrafs on where to get the best Brathendl".

Oh! So kind of like the Christmas Market in Chicago. “Don’t go, it’s horrible, but if you do there is only ONE CORRECT PLACE to get potato pancakes. Wait, I’d better go with you, I do need to do some holiday shopping.”

thegollux re: dumplings

serious question: what is the benefit to pre-cooking half of the chicken stuffing. this feels like food poisoning waiting to happen.

It’s actually a way of keeping the filling cohesive inside the wrapper while avoiding food poisoning! :D 

So, the thing is, when raw ground meat is boiled or steamed inside a wrapper like this, it coheres into a little meatball inside the wrapper, so it doesn’t just fall apart all over your plate when you bite in. But in order to fully cook ground meat inside a wrapper, you generally have to cook the dumpling until the wrapper is way overcooked, making it gummy or tough. 

There are other solutions, like binding the meat up with egg or a sauce, but they don’t give quite that same texture, and can get difficult to wrap, so the solution is to cook SOME of the meat, so some is already pre-cooked, and leave just enough raw to hold the rest together while it boils/steams. You don’t have to cook as long to be sure the meat is fully cooked through, but you also don’t get the “this turned into a pile of crumbled meat on my plate” issue. 

spaci1701 re: dumplings

I'm very jealous. I've only got a hand cranked pasta roller and it's very challenging to roll sheets by yourself - just not enough hands. The best part of doing your own filled pasta is that you can make all the really weird filling combos you want. So far my fave has been Sheppard's pie pierogi.

That sounds amazing! 

Yeah, Mum asked if I was sure I didn’t just want a countertop version, where the same amount of money could buy me a wider roller, and I said that it came down to hands -- if you’re cranking with one hand and feeding with the other, you need a third hand to catch the dough. 

junker5 re: dumplings

Does your mixer have a name? He looks like he has an awesome personality, like DumE orSci’s Calcifer! 😊 The dumplings look amazing.

LOL! No, I never bothered naming him -- I usually only name things if I’m going to be referencing them in conversation with other people, and I never got into the habit of whimsically naming things because in high school I would do that and whatever I had named would break, so I stopped :D 

geekgirl76 re: dumplings

Yum! Side question, how do you like your soda stream? I'm a carbonated water junkie and I'm seriously considering one, even though I have a rule about no appliances that use propriatrary inserts. (though, with the internet, I suppose that's not as big a deal as it used to be, someone, somewhere would either start selling them or create a hack.)

There are definitely adaptors you can buy to hook it up to a non-proprietary CO2 canister, but between the perils of dealing with pressurized canisters and the inconvenience, I’ve never bothered. Sodastream makes it super easy to return your canisters (the only issue right now is supply) so I don’t mind if I’m paying a slight convenience fee for that. Now, that said, you also have to buy proprietary water bottles, some of which aren’t dishwasher-safe, and you’re supposed to replace them every 2-3 years, and those aren’t cheap, so bear that in mind. (If you want the machine washable ones, you have to buy a specific type that only fit a certain number of the machines, so do your homework before buying.) 

I do like my sodastream -- that’s their cheapo version and I’ve had it for 10 years, which tells you something about its durability. Especially if you don’t care about flavoring and just want carbonated water, it’s great. The flavor syrups are hit and miss; a lot of them for me have an acrid aftertaste, and again supply right now can be an issue. But the nice thing about having plain carbonated water is you can make your own flavorings. I often make super-concentrated tea and add a shot of that, or just sprinkle Pure Lemon in. 

Anyway yeah -- it’s not the most ideal setup but I do feel like I save a LOT of money and packaging waste with them. 

lionheartmadre re: dumplings

can i just say i love how you gave your mixer a retro fighter plane look? cause that's frikken awesome.

Thanks! I wanted to decorate it up a little and asked Mum for some decals for Christmas one year, and she really came through :D 

katriel-tumbles re: dumplings

Kreplach FTW. I've never had or made them (a tragedy for this Jew) but I get the feeling they're simpler than they seem.

The dough is a little tricky, because it’s got eggs in it which makes it sticky, which in turn makes it a little more difficult to work with without making the end product rather tough. But yeah, if you can get round the dough issues it’s not that complex. 

fanmouse re: dumplings

Finland: piirakkaa, India: paratha, both similar to pierogi. (I am facinated by how similar the words are in the different language families.) Good luck!

Cat Castles by Carin Oliver shows you how. We did this at my library as a program, great way to use up the cardboard boxes we get the books in, and the leftover yarn and fabric from other crafts.

Oh neat, I’ll check that out! What I desperately need is some kind of guide to how to cut cardboard cleanly -- no matter what blade I use or how hard I try it always looks raggedy and awful. I’ve tried everything from standard sharp scissors to a ruler and a scalpel, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. 

fanmouse replied to your photo “Monster is IMMEDIATELY IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT.  It occurs to me that...”

I did wonder at Hallowe'en, Sam, if you were going to put black, felt cutouts of eyes and a mouth on the orange sulk gourd. :D

OH MAN WHAT A GOOD IDEA. Next year! And I can put a ghost face on the blue one! 

jehnt replied to your photo “The cats can’t possibly know that I may have an ear infection and...”

my cats were super judgmental of me today because i didn't get out of bed until 3 pm. I woke up at 10, I just stayed in bed reading. They kept sitting in the doorway giving me twin looks of disapproval.

Sam, you pulled an adult on some kid. And forgot that you're an actual facts adults. Also I bet you are now being immortalised in a 'this one time -' story a bunch of the people around you are telling.

LOL I’m not even sure if anyone else heard me, you know how airplane accoustics are, but he definitely did. :D I swear I just meant to think it to myself.

I don’t think I ever really internalized that I’m an actual facts adult myself -- it took me realizing that this kid was probably 15-20 years younger than me to realize that I actually appear to have authority.  

winds-wanderer replied to your photo “Man, you guys, the Guggenheim is EVEN UGLIER IN PERSON. Nothing...”

Funny stories re the Guggenheim (from former prof who used to work there as an art handler). 1. The walls are a bitch for hanging art. Many drill bits were required. 2. The incline of each floor was too steep for driving small vehicles carrying art work. As for me, the distance between the wall and the rail is too narrow, preventing proper viewing of big art works. So Guggenheim = great architecture, shitty space for displaying art.

Yeah, I did a bit of reading on it and Frank Lloyd Wright never seems to be really interested in the ultimate use of the piece -- I think he was really a frustrated installation artist before they existed (hence the frustration). His architecture was art applied to structure, but he seemed heavily disinterested in what that structure was surrounding. 

jeanninedupree replied to your photo “Some photos I didn’t get to post today! Lanterns in a park in south...”

Sam, I don't know if you ever ran across the work of Rex Stout's sister Ruth, but it's well worth your time. She's mainly known as a gardening writer (author of "How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back") but her book "If You Would Be Happy" is good general philosophy of life.

Oh neat! I wasn’t aware of her, thank you. I’ll add it to my reading queue! 

jaythenerdkid-official replied to your photo “Some photos I didn’t get to post today! Lanterns in a park in south...”

I always read that the address of wolfe's brownstone (which changed quite a bit in the books, just like the name of wolfe's lawyer - IS IT NATHANIEL OR IS IT HENRY GEORGE,, REX) would put his house somewhere in the river. that plaque is so cool, though! wolfe is one of my favourite detectives. he and goodwin are my favourite bickering old married couple to go and visit when I'm feeling down.

Yeah, he shared with Conan Doyle a certain lack of concern with the finer details of his stories, but then I think he thought of them as fun little pulps -- he made them as literary as possible and he had some social commentary to make especially in the later ones, but I don’t think he ever thought they’d be seriously studied by people. 

There were definitely a lot of addresses I found when I decided I’d go searching for the brownstone (there aren’t any brownstones in that area anymore) but once I happened on the fact that there was a plaque, I decided to take the Wolfe Pack’s word for it :D 

sphinxyvic replied to your photo “Some photos I didn’t get to post today! Lanterns in a park in south...”

Gotta show this to Parhelion! We’ll have to look for it next time we’re in NYC!

It’s at 454 West 35th Street -- though I have to warn you there is no brownstone attached to it, it’s just a very nice kind of vintagey-designed apartment block. 

thetimesinbetween replied to your photo “Found hipster foodie Steve’s favorite coffee joint. (It is in...”

pause, i live here (in brooklyn)—where is this???

It’s called The Flat BKSpeed Coffee -- I guess it’s kind of a sales point for a coffee micro-roastery in the area? 

luthorchickv2 replied to your photo “Well I found something to top yesterday’s Vermeer.”

Was in a cab going up first when i was this post and managed to look out the window at exactly the right moment to see it.

Aw yay, how serendipitous! I actually quite like it, it’s weird and I’m not sure where it’s going but it’s having fun on the way there. According to news coverage, it’s meant to be a welcoming, whimsical first sight on the way to the new children’s hospital that’s going up nearby. 

persian-slipper replied to your photo “Well I found something to top yesterday’s Vermeer.”

Who is the artist? It isn't S. Johnson, is it?

No, although there is a Seward Johnson nearby, apparently, I passed close to it on the bus ride back from the doggo. It’s by Donald Lipiski. 

laughingacademy replied to your photo “Well I found something to top yesterday’s Vermeer.”

Too bad it wasn't raining, that causes the windshield wipers to turn on.

I HEARD. I was so mad too because it rained later that day! 

myotherblogisatardis replied to your post “The little statues are in the 14th St/8th Avenue stop, not 34th. St.”

Ohhhh... Those.... I *hate* those guys!

I have to admit the first ones I saw I was like “Oh, how cute!” and the second one I saw next to it I was like “Well that’s funny!” and then the more I saw the more creeped out I got. 

bobcatmoran replied to your photo “Okay kids, you said Ess-A-Bagel so here I am, and bagels aside, the...”

Midwesterner who lived in NY for a few years - I think the thing about NYC bagels isn't necessarily that the best NYC bagels are on a different plane than the best bagels in, say, Chicago. It's that the average NYC bagel is so, SO much better than the average bagel in a Midwestern city, even one as big as Chicago. And they're so ubiquitous.

That makes sense, and the ubiquity I will acknowledge -- the ease of getting a really good bagel in New York is undeniable. If I lived in a city where I could get bagels that good that easily, I’d have a bit of civic pride about it too.  

This does, however, reinforce my belief that people who hear the question “Hey where can I get good bagels in XYZ city” and respond “You can’t, go to New York” are being assholes. It’s not helpful, it just generates noise, and it’s worse now! Because it’s SO EASY to find good bagels in New York! New Yorkers should be sympathetic to the plights of those trying to find good bagels elsewhere. It’s the pettiest of punching-down maneuvers.   

truly-a-gryffindork replied to your photo “Okay kids, you said Ess-A-Bagel so here I am, and bagels aside, the...”

If you want a side of religious experience with your bagels you’ll have to go to Montreal

I am willing to test this hypothesis the next time I find myself in Montreal! 

lh7 replied to your post “Sam I have an important Chicago question: just north of the DuSable...”

hey @copperbadge​ this post on my blog was flagged

Thank you! Even Tumblr knows how atrocious Seward Johnson’s art is. I’ve had it unflagged. 

fanmouse replied to your photo “IT HAS BEEN A VERY EXCITING DAY. I went to Tal’s bagels for breakfast...”

I want to know if one of the silver pitchers in the Met collection belonged to Vermeer (or the model). Wishing you safe travels.

I actually backtracked yesterday morning to the public-access storage room and went through the rack of silver pitchers looking for one that matched, but alas, none had the right shape and spout. 

melinda-t-charville replied to your photo “Funnily enough mum used to complain that people randomly followed her...”

Thank you! I was able to find it now - you must have got a good deal bc they're selling it for $20 on Amazon!

As a person who grew up in an aging, predominantly-German, Lutheran church in the 1970s, I say: do not forget George and Helen(e) as popular names from your time period. In a group of 300 people, we had 7 or 8 of each, many married to each other.

Fuckin’ NOTED. I was running out of names anyway. 

mermaidprecipice replied to your post “I’m working on an audio transcript using voice recognition technology,...”

I guess God doesn't bother with version control

To judge from the transcript, God can be defeated using proprietary test gap analysis software. 

molltovcocktail replied to your post “I’m working on an audio transcript using voice recognition technology,...”

Wow, “We don’t know what God ticketed as an issue and what just God ignored“ is metal as HELL.

Everyone seems to have latched onto that one, I think because of the idea of a Just God ignoring certain issues. :D 

shinyblackbird replied to your post “beatrice-otter replied to your photoset “Welcome to NaNoWriMo.  (I’m...”

I can’t wait to read this!!!!! I spent most of my 20s popping back and forth between north TX (Denton) and west TX (Odessa), so I can say with some authority that however flat and windy you think the panhandle is, it’s a good bit flatter and SO MUCH WINDIER, omg. Even without any storms the wind can be terrifying and downright eldritch. People can and will cancel their plans on account of being sandblasted when you step out the front door

ALSO fucking noted. I forgot how flat most of Texas is. The community is shielded from the worst of the Dust Bowl for reasons that will come in at a later date, but that doesn’t mean they can’t suffer from Wind and Flatness. 

clockways replied to your post “beatrice-otter replied to your photoset “Welcome to NaNoWriMo.  (I’m...”

I'll be character witness for guinea-goon lol and she did loads of anthropology too. Also let me know if you need a cover. I've been itching to draw the mental image since your dream but I think it needs to be charcoal and I hate charcoal a bit.

Let’s not forget that ESPN “interview” with Tyler where he named the Stars’ PR guy and Derek Jeter as the 2 people in all the world with whom he’d want to go to lunch.