Poem: The Quest

By Jack Brummet

It’s all one story—
A ragged shape-shifting tale
Of incredible coherence and constance,
Encompassing all you know,
All you don’t know you know,
And all you one day will know.

There is more
To be seen, tasted, heard, and felt
Than can ever be known or told.

Our myths flourish and spread,
Person to person,
And the mysteries of the seas and skies and stars
Fill our collective conscience
With mystical scenes,
Quests, and tales of greatness.

These myths, tales, and fables
Cannot be invented, ordered, or denied.

When you strip away the stage flats, makeup, and costumes,
It’s all one story
Starring our private heroes and dreams.
              ---o0o--- 

Hitler's face appears in a pizza box (shades of the Shroud of Turin and Jesus tortillas)

By Mona Goldwater, Germany Ed.

Thanks to reader Jeff Clinton for this one!  No word if it is out on eBay yet.  And, yeah, we also strongly wonder whether or not this was crafted.  /Mona

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The Rapture, revisited

By Mona Goldwater, Religion Ed.
[art by Jack Brummet]

A little over two years ago Jack Brummet created a series of analog/digital art pieces based on the upcoming rapture.  The day came and went, and we're mostly all still here.

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The stages of a failed project

• Uncritical Acceptance
• Wild Enthusiasm
• Dejected Disillusionment
• Total Confusion
• Search for the Guilty
• Punishment of the Innocent
• Promotion of the Non-participants

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Sunday ride

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Cooking with Jack, Part 5 - Limoncello (lemon zest liqueur)

By Jack Brummet

Limoncello (lemon zest liqueur)

15 lemons (organic if possible/affordable), well scrubbed
2 750ml 100 proof vodka
4 cups cane sugar
5 cups water


1. Carefully zest the lemons, leaving no/very little white pith on the peel.  Pour one bottle of vodka in a large jar or ceramic container and add the peel as it is zested.  Freeze the juice or use it in something!
 
2.  Let sit for at least ten days and up to a month in a cool dark place.

3.  Combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil.  Cook about 5 minutes until the syrup thickens.  Allow to cool.

4.  Add to the limoncello mixture with the second bottle of vodka.  Allow to rest for another 30 days or more.

5.  Strain using a fine sieve or cheesecloth and bottle.  Keep one bottle handy in your freezer.  Serve it cold and straight, on the rocks, or in a cocktail with seltzer and bitters.  People also use it on ice cream and in other desserts.

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Photo of a 1920's executioner-style football face mask

Faces No. 519: one shot/driver's license photos

Drawings by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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J.R.R. Tolkien watercolor of Rivendell

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It's inspiring that, despite all the garbage that has gone down, the Peace Corps survives

By Jack Brummet, Volunteer and Public Service Ed.

And then, there is the Peace Corps back in the day (when I was prime recruitment material). And they were putting out heart-tugging persuasive material like this late 1960's advertisement:

   "Of all the ways America can grow, one way is by learning from others.
   There are things you can learn in the Peace Corps you can't learn anywhere else.
   "You could start an irrigation program.  And find that crabgreass and front lawns look a little ridiculous.  When there isn't enough wheat to go around in Nepal. 
   "You could be the outsider who helps bring a Jamaican fishing village to life for the first time in three hundred years.  And you could wonder if your country has outsiders enough.  In Watts.  In Detroit.  In Appalachia.  On its Indian reservations.
   "Last year, for the first time Peace Corps alumni outnumbered volunteers who are now out at work overseas.
   "By 1980, 200,000 Peace Corps alumni will be living their lives in every part of America. 
   "There are those who think you can't change the world in the Peace Corps.
   "On the other hand, maybe it's not just what you do in the Peace Corps that counts.
   "But what you do when you get back."

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Painting: Study for "Lies"

By Jack Brummet

This is a study I did for a painting I was working on called "Lies."  Circa 1997...

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Why is milk so far from the door in grocery stores?

By Jack Brummet, Consumer Ed.

This is interesting -- we know grocery stores generally keep their whole foods around the perimeter of the store.  One of those foods--milk--is almost always placed the maximum amount of distance from the entrance...apparently so you won't stop in only to buy milk.  This is definitely true of the three stores I most shop at for sure--Ballard Market, Central Market, and the Holman Road QFC.  And I can think of other places where this is true too:  the Crown Hill Safeway, and even the 7/11.

From the Notre Dame website page on grocery store psychology:

"Grocery stores stock the items shoppers buy most often at the back of the store, forcing them to travel through other tempting aisles to pick up the essentials. Items such as meat, eggs, dairy and bread are strategically placed in the back of the store, making it hard for shoppers to resist grabbing other items when making a quick trip to the grocery."

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