Our Dumb Blog

I’m not really a fan of Fresh Air. I think that asking already-famous people to bloviate is sort of the opposite of fresh air. But I accidentally caught a portion of this interview today, and it contains some of my favorite moments of interview, ever. It starts at 20:00, the rest is not that interesting.

It contains a beautiful moment where Greta Gerwig (who I really, really love) manages to answer a question by turning on Terry Gross in a way that neither she, nor I listening, saw coming. It’s such a beautiful moment of answering a tough question by getting your interviewer to answer it herself that I was just blown away.
Also, for the record, I’ve been thinking about Louis CK a lot lately, and I think Terry Gross explained exactly how I feel.

My cousin Jim died yesterday. Here’s a picture of a bunch of us cousins at Mardi Gras. Jim is on the left. Jim was much more like an uncle than a cousin, always generous, being sure to always keep in touch. One of my favorite memories of him was the time he smuggled me into the annual Mensa convention by talking our way in. Another was him awakening the proprietress of Antoine’s, the oldest restaurant in Louisiana, so she could give us a tour one morning. I’ve heard that he would occasionally get asked for his autograph by people who mistook him for Rush Limbaugh and he would take their pen and paper and sign his own name. A scholar and a gentleman, you’ll be missed, Jim.

I did get my neck rub.

I did get my drink the next evening.  The cat supervised.

I was able to fix the zipper on my jacket lining by squeezing the pull with some pliers.  Here’s my jacket tag.  I’m guessing it’s Chinese, but the text seems to be in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, along with the English.  It’s  a really good jacket, but I’m guessing it’s probably not legit, since I can’t find anything on the Internet First Siberian leather jackets.

My friend T once served me some delicious chicken tortellini soup.  I got the recipe from her and modified it heavily.  Here’s my version.  It is so good.  Even Mikey likes it.

 

Chicken tortellini soup

1 lb chicken breasts cubed

1 lb sliced sausage (I like to use Andouille)

3 quarts of chicken broth

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 cup vermouth

24 oz fresh or frozen tortellini

2 cups sliced carrots

2 bunches chopped green onions

4 teaspoons basil

1 teaspoon oregano

1 small head garlic minced

1 package fresh spinach

2 cups shredded white Cheddar

1 cup cream

pepper to taste

seasoned salt to taste (about 1 tablespoon)

 

Sauté the carrots in a little bit of olive oil. Add garlic and sausage.

Bring to a boil everything except the tortellini, spinach, and Cheddar.  Add the tortellini, the spinach and Cheddar, bring back to a boil, and simmer  10 minutes or until tortellini is done.  Add cream and serve with more grated Cheddar on top.

Fortunately, it’s soup and it doesn’t really matter what you do.