Haiku Time!

As usual, if you spot a mistake, talk to me (and don't die of laughter!)...

放浪幽霊鴬張り上演奏する

The wandering ghosts

play

on the nightingale floor.

©Drusilla de Lanor [March, 30^th, 2013]

[Recipe] Gratinéed Polenta

I got this recipe in a delightful village between Nice and Piedmont. It's delicious - and rather quick to make. 

For this dish, I'm using the square dish (25x25cm) that I mentioned in another recipe. The proportions are perfect for it.

You'll need:
250 gr instant polenta
about 1 litre of water

a teaspoon of sea salt

1 onion

1 can of chopped tomatoes (400 gr)

about 150 gr of grated cheese (emmental works well)
pepper (if you want)
and salt 

Prep time: about 20 minutes
Cooking: about 40 minutes (in all)

Instructions:

1. Put the water in a saucepan and add the sea salt. Now, if you follow the instructions on your polenta packet, you're probably being told to wait until the water boils, and then add the polenta slowly, stir it for a couple of minutes and take it off the stove to thicken.

This works well, but... polenta in boiling water can have lava properties.

What I do now is that I start adding the polenta slowly when the water starts to bubble, and I keep stirring steadily until I've got all the polenta in. When the polenta starts to blob and go Vesuvius on me, I take the saucepan off the stove, and it's time to turn to the onion, which should be cut in tiny bits, whilst the polenta thickens.

2. Put half the polenta in the dish and add the onion:

Add some pepper if you want.

3. Add the can of tomatoes:

Add some salt, and some pepper (if you like pepper).

4. Cover this with the rest of the polenta:

5. Add the cheese:

and straight to the oven for about half an hour.

6. Bon appétit !

From Russia... with Paint

After tiny (not so tiny) IT consultations for the family, I needed some quiet. After a spot of Zen, I let the painting bunny tackle me.

Here's what I've been doing today:

Step 1: Sunset

 Step 2: Some water

 Step 3: Lake shore & buildings

So... what do you think?

New Painting

There you go:

Federico for Ever (First Research Paper?)

So... after last night's announcement, I've been looking for possible topics, and I think I'm probably going to work on Federico García Lorca.

Aphra Behn is a valid candidate, too.

Aeons ago, I also started working on Hatshepsut, and I'm tempted to un-earth my research folder.

Is this my research for 2013 selected for good?

Time to vote...

Writing News & Updates

I've been dusting off my old MA thesis (and I finally caught two MLA errors in my bibliography after all these years!), and that made me miss my "research" hat.

I feel like writing an article on some historical topic.

I was even thinking that I could write something regularly. Let's consider this logically: if I were to write something each month, it'd be quite short and not too deep, which could be somewhat uninteresting... so, I could try to write a paper per trimester (though the summer months would be eaten up in a void, since I spend most of my time in a hole with no library - or even a book-store!).

I'll try to think of topics.

In a prior incarnation, I wrote about pretty eclectic topics (from military strategy to painters and playwrights), so this could be fun.

If........................... by any chance........................... you know........................... you'd like to suggest something........................... I promise that you can talk to me. I don't bite, honest (merely trying to encourage you here because *cough* *points at the right of the screen* there's a pretty good counter, and I really can see you click, oh, happy and silent adepts of the click&run).

Apart from my History bug, I'm typing short stories, and I'm still working on a longer plot (most probably a novel in the end).

I still have to dust off Play#2 and start research for Play#3.

My PI Sci-Fi plot is still brewing.

Oh! I wrote my first crime story (and I officially thank QI, Stephen Fry and Louise Brealey; they don't know it, but they got this plot bunny hopping to my keyboards, for various reasons - obviously).

By the way, would you be interested in the titles and summaries of my "babies"?

/over/

What's in a Name? (A Tale of Sexism)

What’s in a… surname? A lot, and I’ve recently been catching interesting comments from young feminists on various forums.

This time, I’m not going to give any name, but if you read my somewhat recent posts, I bet you’ll be able to follow.

So, let’s talk about an imaginary young lady, who recently got married. According to our laws and customs, she’s to be called by her husband’s surname now – and this is what happens to most women who get married and do not keep their birth surnames or hyphenate.

Now… if a woman's somehow marrying up and the average quill-pushers and assorted camera-equipped mosquitoes get to make money by mentioning that woman, they’re going to belittle the recently married lady, because their common jealousy and pettiness need to remind the world that she married up, that she’s not as good/important/whatever as her husband.

That bothers me a lot (I may well be an annoying stickler for proper protocol, but I definitely wasn’t raised in a barn).

Oh, and the people using the lady’s maiden name are, according to me and my values, being sexist.

About a fortnight ago, I read a few comments that really bothered me. Still talking about the same young woman who married well, I caught several sisters saying that we must keep using her maiden name because she’s not her husband’s property.

Right… 
Sorry, but I’ll have to do this:

Whilst it’s super cute that some of our sisters want a newly-married lady to not be viewed as chattel, they’re all forgetting one tiny detail (and when I say “detail”, I’m being extremely sarcastic). The surnames we’re given are from a male, nearly always so in our neighbourhood. Whether it’s a father, or a grandfather in the case of a single mother raising her child or children alone, our surnames come from men.

Basically, a woman has her father’s surname until she takes her husband’s.

I’ll always be in favour of a woman deciding to take her husband’s surname, because that sister will have chosen that man, whilst her being born to her father and being given his surname is just a mere twist of fate.

It’s not being sexist to call a married woman by her husband’s surname, it’s merely respecting her choice.

One solution to avoid sexism would be to encourage young women, and men (why not?) to choose their own surnames when they come of age, but we’d be back to square one the moment there’s a wedding and a child enters the picture… because we can’t hyphenate up to a point where a surname would be longer than the directory.

Nothing’s perfect, and nothing will be about surnames: there’s always one surname in a couple that’s going to disappear in the long run, but… when it comes to a charming woman who married for love, let's respect her choice. That is the only way to not be sexist – and petty.

Big News [Quick Announcement]

And I'm late, since Sunday night is long gone...

In fact, my Sunday ended later than initially planned, and then my main job interfered because it was homework week (and I had a few hiccoughs on the road with that).

So, let's take this backwards: I'm not going to jinx anything (yep, very superstitious creature when it comes to theatre, here! Ta!), but I've made a few contacts about my first play. The moment I've got good news, I'll share with you. Let's face it, the odds are you'll hear my shout of joy...

Then, my passion for Star Trek has had adorable consequences as I've been invited in a museum in order to introduce visitors to... the Klingon language.

I've met a few fans - and it was brilliant to chat with them - and people who'd barely heard the name "Star Trek" before stepping into the room devoted to this informal introduction.

They've all been pure delight, young and old(er), and I got to meet and work with people who are nice, kind and very interesting.

I've done two sessions, and I've got another one planned. 

I absolutely love Mr Roddenberry's creations, and since I started digging deeper into Klingon for this, my respect and admiration for the linguist who gave us the Klingon language, Mr Okrand, are profound.

I am lucky: I work in fields that I love, and going to work (or working through my computer at home) is always nice (yes, even when my students drive me mad).

More news a.s.a.p.

Big News [Coming Soon]

Yep.

This is a teaser.

I'll have big news about two things very soon.

Item #1: I'll be able to speak about it next Sunday evening (or night).

Item #2: I don't have a date yet, but something big's brewing about Play #1 (Paper Cranes).

Stay tuned.................................................

*beams out, grinning*