Waughblog

It's that time of year where I change my guitar strings. You can catch me channeling my inner Raffi at libraries across the parish over the coming month. There you can watch me showing off the rainbow covered strap on my anthropomorphized guitar, Oscar. Then I put Oscar on my back to show the kids how to do the swimming motions forSlippery Fish. Then I turn around and Oscar is gone! I look around, in his case, around and around, under my legs. All the kids shout "He's on your back! On your back!" It's pandemonium!

Children, ages 2 and up, will sing along with Mike the Librarian and Oscar the Guitar as they perform classic children's songs at six libraries this summer. The classic tunes will include Old McDonald, Wheels on the Bus, I've Been Working on the Railroad, Slippery Fish, and many more!

• Tuesday, June 17, 2:30 pm -- Main Library
• Wednesday, June 18, 2:30 pm -- Jones Creek Regional Library
• Tuesday, June 24, 10:00 am -- Zachary Branch
• Wednesday, June 25, 2:30 pm -- Central Branch
• Tuesday, July 1, 10:00 am -- River Center Branch
• Tuesday, July 8, 10:00 am -- Greenwell Springs Road Regional Library

Here's a recipe for the perfect tomato sandwich.

Perfect Tomato Sandwich
Preparation time: 10-14 weeks

1. Sometime in February, buy a pack of tomato seeds for a couple dollars. In the spring, the local nurseries will gouge you for the plants for transplanting (it's like selling umbrellas in the rain). By planning ahead you will save a ton of money.
2. After buying some potting soil for $4, plant your seeds in cups. Water them nearly everyday. Put them outside in the morning to get sun and bring them inside at night to protect them from the cold, the squirrels, the bugs, the wolves and tomato poachers. Repeat at least 30 times.
3. Sometime in the middle of March remove the remains of the winter garden. Add 10 wheelbarrows of composted horse manure and till the beds until your arms feel like they will fall off. Take a steaming hot bath and then limp for the next two days.
4. A week or so before the last surprise freeze of the year, plant your tomato plants in the ground, which should take an hour or so. If you are unsure about the best way to plant them, spend 6-8 hours researching the subject on the internet.
5. Buy 10 tomato plants from Lowe's for $3 and plant them within eyesight of your stunted and shriveled seedlings.
6. Water and fertilize your plants. Notice how your watering affects the local weather. When you water your plants, it will rain withing the next 6 hours. When you don't water them, hot, dry, and windy conditions (aka the Tom Joad Wind) will persist.
7. If at any point you don't visit your tomatoes for more than two days, be sure you have at least two hours to devote to their pruning.
8. While weeding your tomatoes, but after they are staked, learn that you need your gloves to weed, but that it's impossible to tie a knot with the gloves on. So you will need at least ten pairs of gloves as you lose them in various parts of the garden.
9. There are three baptisms you must undergo before your tomato will ripen: baptism by stinking soaked shirt, baptism by sunburn, and baptism by fire ants. Note: Contrary to popular belief, baptism by stinging wasps is only necessary for the production of string beans. It is optional for tomato farming.
10. Finally a day or two after its first blush, pick the first tomato and steal away with it with Gollum-like zeal. Keep an eye out for tomato poachers.
11. Upon ripening take a picture of it for your blog. Look out the window to see if anybody sees you taking close-ups of a tomato.


12. Now's the time to be a purist. Toast some bread; slice your tomato. Add a slather of mayonnaise to the bread. Stack one or two slices of tomato. Salt and pepper.
13. Enjoy!

Checking my email today, I noticed a rash of comments on this 3 year old post: The Island of Unwanted Books. That's kind of odd, I thought. Then I find this comment wherein I find out that the link was included in this home-schooler's newsletter. The name of the article is "De-selecting Books: The Hidden Shame of Librarians". I guess that explains the sudden appearance of the pitchforks and torches.

Last issue I mentioned some books that libraries are ditching on a regular basis. I happened upon a blog entry that is a good example of what librarians think their duty is regarding books:

http://www.mwbrand.com/waughblog/2005/07/the-island-of-u.html

The gentleman who wrote the entry obviously didn't have the time or inclination to actually OPEN and READ a few paragraphs of the books he was 'de-selecting' -- before passing judgment.

These particular books are older looking, but I regularly find even brand NEW, beautiful books that have been lovingly donated by women's clubs, etc. carelessly 'weeded' or 'de-selected' by (ahem) what I would call uneducated librarians. Notice how he speaks of too much 'information' being on the shelves -- as though literature were simply 'information'.

"Copper-Toed Boots" by Marguerite de Angeli is a LOVELY fiction story
set in early Michigan. "Nobody Plays With a Cabbage" is one of my favorite read-alouds of all time. And this so-called librarian doesn't even seem to recognize Walter de la Mare? Did he ever take a course in children's literature?

They will tell you the books simply aren't being checked-out and are outdated. The REAL problem is that librarians aren't doing their job recommending good books! Otherwise, children would be reading them, enjoying them, and coming back for more great recommendations.

Who knew that "Nobody Plays With a Cabbage" would be someone's favorite read aloud of all time? As someone told me today, for every book ever written, there will be at least one person out there who thinks its the greatest book ever. And thanks to the internet, they will find my blog post mocking it and proudly proclaim its superiority and accuse me of ineptitude.

Mike Waugh, meet The Long Tail.

I've got a new theme idea I'm working on based off of this Orangina Art Nouveau poster that I have hanging on my wall.

I might tone it down when my vision returns after staring at my screen for the last few hours trying to figure out the css declarations.

About a week ago I made a list of things I can do on lazy mornings. Bake muffins! was on the top of the list. This morning I found I had a bunch of strawberries that needed to realize their potential.

I read some food blogs recently and I noticed they all have extreme close-up pictures of their food. So here I am, carrying my coffee and muffins into the backyard with my camera. Then waiting for JT Dancer to walk past the barn so I can get him in the background. But instead of a gray horse, I only saw this mud monster.

The trick is to get the food in focus, but have a portion of it out of focus, preferably in the corner of the frame.

By the way, the muffins were delicious.

Strawberry Muffins Forever

First you put on some Beatles. Despite the name of these muffins, pre-psychedelic Beatles are best for baking. I'm thinking Rubber Soul or Revolver.

Adapted from Pillsbury Best Muffins and Quick Breads.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour


• 1/2 cup sugar (note: I've been using 1/2 sugar 1/2 Splenda with no problems)


• 3 teaspoons baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 3/4 cup soymilk


• 1/3 cup oil


• 1 egg, beaten


• 1 cup chopped strawberries (chop them small; I reckon I'm getting 16-24 pieces per strawberry)


• 2 tablespoons sugar (this is to sprinkle on top. I used regular sugar rather than my 1/2 1/2 mix mentioned above. It seems like it would crust and caramelize better)

Heat the oven to 400 Spray muffin tins with cooking spray. Get two bowls. Sift the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Mix the wet ingredients together in the other bowl and add to the dry ingredients. Mix together lightly until the ingredients are just moistened. Do not overmix. Add the chopped strawberries and stir them in gently. Using an ice cream scooper fill up the muffin cups with the batter. Sprinkle the sugar over the tops.

Bake at 400 for 20-24 minutes until a knife poked in the middle comes out clean. Let them cool for a minute. I usually pull out the bottoms so that each muffin rests on their side while they cool. Otherwise they might get soggy in spots.

Check out the mini-reviews on the right sidebar. I'm pretty excited about them. I upgraded to Movable Type 4.1 (from 4.01) for one reason: to be able to use the MTAssetDescription tag. This tag allows me to make comments about each Amazon media item that I plug into the sidebar.

I was pleasantly surprised when I finished the installation because

1. The whole works didn't crash like last time.


2. The Media Manager plugin I had painstakingly installed and tinkered with just two months ago is now fully functional and seems to be automatically included with the MT4.1 package.


3. Spell checking is enabled, even in my asset descriptions.

If you are interested in Movable Type and template code for using Amazon assets, read on. If not, then just enjoy my witty and insightful mini-reviews.