Scribal Terror

The Night Owl Is Curious

about pranks and hijinks, musings and mutterings, and the door is open all night.

Round Barn

I took this picture on the way home from work yesterday because I simply love these magnificent round barns:

First built by the Shakers in 1824, round barns required less lumber and bracing the frame.  Construction was also simplified, as no elaborate scaffolding was required for the circular arched roof. The barns also proved more resilient against prairie storms.

The barns pictured here were built around 1910 and are owned by the University of Illinois.

Aloo, Alho

Vindaloo sounds very Indian, mainly because aloo is Hindi for potato, but the aloo in vindaloo has nothing to do with potatoes. Vindaloo comes from the Portuguese Vinho de Alho, a pork dish prepared with wine vinegar and garlic. The Portuguese brought this recipe with them to Goa, a small kingdom on the east coast of India,which was a Portuguese colony from the 16th century to 1961.  In its Goan incarnation, vindaloo was prepared with traditional Indian spices such as cumin and chilis. In other words, it's fusion cuisine -- and I love it! The owners of my favorite Indian restaurant make great vindaloos, they speak Hindi, and their name is Rodrigues.

Annacole Shbak Bisssshes

Where have they been all this time, Jeff?

Could Jane Have Noshed a Vindaloo?

According to Johnathan Pearce at Samizdata,

Historians have found that Britain's first Indian restaurant was opened in 1809, in the midst of the Napoleonic wars and during the period in which Austen set Pride and Prejudice.

The Hindoostane Coffee House was established by Sake Dean Mahomed, an Indian-born entrepreneur, as a purveyor of Oriental food of the "highest perfection" in Marylebone, London, which at the time was a residential district for the well-off.

And he wonders about the cultural ramifications:

I can imagine how this story is going to change all those costume dramas set in the early 19th Century: "Pray excuse me sir X, but I am in urgent need of a chicken korma."

Dope Dealers in Laa-Laa Land

Piles of cocaine. With pictures of Teletubbies on them. Why? Who knows? Who wants to know? Merely "knowing" would ruin the perfect Zen of the moment.

Details at Smoking Gun

Self-Righteous Blather May Have Unintended Consequences

From CNS News:

An Anglican church leader in Baghdad has warned that Iraqi Christians could be adversely affected by a Church of England bishops' report criticizing the Iraq war and suggesting that Christians apologize to Muslims.

"They've got to take seriously the Anglican churches in these [Muslim] nations," the Church of England Newspaper quoted Canon Andrew White as saying in its weekly edition published on Friday.

"The situation is dangerous on the ground and what is said in the U.K. has a profound effect," he added. . . .

White is the rector of the St George's Memorial Church, Iraq's only Anglican congregation. He is also a Church of England expert on issues regarding reconciliation in the Middle East, and has been involved in conflict resolution and hostage negotiations.

White noted with evident dismay that the drafters of the report -- four leading Church of England bishops-- had not contacted the Anglican bishop responsible for Iraq, Clive Handford, whose area of responsibility includes Jerusalem, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and the Gulf.

Read what these poobahs had to say while their pompous British asses were safely ensconsed in their gentlemen's clubs.

The door is open . . .

Come on in and talk.  Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, rant, Surrealist or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing syllepsis, dirty syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.

The Night Owl Is Curious

about pranks and hijinks, musings and mutterings, and the door is open all night.

Deer Departed

According to the North Carolina News & Observer:

A man reported missing from a Florida hospital was found in North Carolina dressed like a doctor and driving a stolen ambulance with a dead deer wedged in the back, authorities said.

Leon Holliman Jr., 37, was reported missing from a River Region Human Services facility in Jacksonville last month.

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol found him driving the ambulance with the deer on Sunday.

"I don't know how the man got it up in there," said Sgt. Robert Pearson. "It was a six point buck."

H/t Boing Boing