Posts from 7th March 2004
7
Mar 04
Since
Since MOTHS never sleep, and are as active now as 50 years ago, the looks of bafflement that sistrah Becky and I got when we asked for MOTHBALLS are a bit baffling in themselves (e.g. in Woolworths and in my otherwise unimpeachable nearby drycleaners – shopname “Venus Bigfoot” for reasons best known to themselves – we were looked at as if we were mad for asking).
I can see that worries about toxicity might have pushed the market down a bit – but I suspect some kind of Naffness Alert is the real culprit, as if minding about jumpers w.holes in them is the province of little old ladies w.blue hair.
The chemists I finally found them in, the guy – by no means a yoot – said “They’ve changed the formula”, and then (when he saw the very extremely old-skool label: “Dragon Brand Traditional Moth Balls – For Protection Against Moths) “Er no maybe they haven’t!!”
Meanwhile my friend T sent me some of these, which I have to admit do actually smell nicer – except is that a good thing, in context? My own haha “natural” instinct is to get cross at the claim that the effects of NAPHTHALENE and PARADICHLOROBENZENE are in some sense NOT “natural” – cancer is “natural”, and so is death, by plant or animal or anything – but yeah, I would I guess like actually to survive my solution to the jumper-holes problem.
Anyway also I found this….
(Next week, where to buy gothballs)
don’t like it DON’T LIKE IT
More on kids’n’music, heh: I like where Keiran puts pencils in his ears rather than hear some of the horrible dadmusic…
My Dad as God of Weird Breakfast Long Ago
My Dad as God of Weird Breakfast Long Ago:
He’s too disabled to manage now, sadly, but especially when I was small, breakfast was HIS meal, and he went at it with fascinating precision, everything exactly timed with its own ritual – I’m way too slapdash and late-rising and hurried to get with this, and I miss it.
Plus he sometimes did extra-strange breakfasts on special occasions. Some of these were somewhat intricate for first thing – oh lovely breaded cod’s roe, shall I always overfry thee? – but this one is easy: Toasted Sardines on Toast…
1: Cut open ciabatta (OK we just had something ordinary and sliced when I wz a kid, and you still can – but you can get ciabatta in Somerfields now, so its ponciness index has clearly reached zero if such things bother you)
2: Grill one side till nice and brown, the other very VERY lightly.
3: Butter lightly grilled side, then spread sardines straight from can so oil gets into bread (the kind we always bought had a man in a sou’wester and oilskins on the picture on the lid, but I haven’t seen him for years)*
4: Toast till ready.
*(Also I vaguely remember that though we always CALLED them sardines, they were actually “brisling”? Is this some pre-EU thing?)