Friday Flames: Gumbo and gum disease
And other news about Barbra, beignets, blob planets, Band-Aids, beans, Bourbon, and bionic butlers.
Once we reach our 50s, we’re supposed to have figured out how to meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same. Today is one of those days that tests that premise, because randomly it finds us at opposite ends of the mood spectrum.
Doug is still coming down from a delightful trip to New Orleans that he and our son had been planning for 10 years, since they saw the father and son bonding over beignets in Chef. In contrast, Magda is recuperating from the back-to-back whammy of a shingles shot and root canal surgery and feeling like a gorilla’s suitcase.
Just about every trip hits some kind of snag, but this one was remarkably problem-free. The tone was set early when the French Men went to brunch on their first morning in the French Quarter and sat next to a very extroverted tourism director on her lunch hour. She helped them plan meals, live music, and all kinds of touristy and non-touristy things to see and do. Crawfish season was peaking. NOMA had a stunning exhibit of West African masquerade rituals. A bartender celebrated our son’s birthday with a free round of Sazeracs.
Meanwhile, Magda is on her couch with throbbing gums and fluey aches radiating throughout her body.
Life is not fair. And there have been plenty of times when Magda has traipsed gaily, pressing flowers in life’s garden while Doug’s psyche lay flat in the trash. The point is, relationships get stronger when one partner knows exactly what can help the other out of a deep, miserable hole.
Or, if you’re divorced, you can just avoid each other entirely until one of you can chew solid food again.
Embers in the News
Here are some of the links that peeked through the noisy news cycle:
“You gave me life twice” A mom gave her daughter a kidney in Louisiana’s first robotic kidney transplant. Two years later, they graduated nursing school together.
Moonstruck Caltech researchers believe two huge blobs near the Earth’s center are remnants of an ancient planet that collided with Earth and created our Moon.
Band-Aids for your organs A research team has developed an electronic, paper-thin patch that attaches to an organ to create a highway for drug delivery.
Our destiny is robot butlers MIT engineers have built the Elderly Bodily Assistance Robot (E-BAR) that physically support elderly people in their homes.
Currently reading
Magda is reading Uncommon Measure by Natalie Hodges, "an exploration of music and its relation to the science of time," as part of the Big Library Read and isn't sure if she likes it yet. She's also listening to Leslie Jones's delightful memoir Leslie F*cking Jones, read delightfully by the delightful author.
Doug bought another paperback copy of A Confederacy of Dunces at Crescent City Books, where the cashier happened to be thumbing through a rare hardcover copy priced at $480. For the fully immersive experience, he re-re-read it while in the French Quarter eating beignets.
Currently watching
Doug introduced our son to the first few episodes of Treme, which is streaming on whatever HBO’s app is currently called. They enjoyed recognizing places they had just visited and rehearsing how to pronounce “Tchoupitoulas.”
Magda is not enjoying "Yes, Chef!", the new cooking game show hosted by Martha Stewart and José Andrés. Too many of the contestants are so mean-spirited that you wish they'd all just go home.
Currently cooking
Magda hasn't been cooking lately but is ready to try out her close personal friend Barbra Streisand's recipe for no-churn coffee ice cream once this post-vaccine haze has finally lifted.
After several days of rich NOLA food, Doug should commit to vegetarianism for at least a week. But that’s not keeping him from trying out new recipes for red beans and rice (delicious, mostly because he found some good andouille) and olive salad (with extra pepperoncini) for homemade muffulettas.
Thanks for reading, and it’s time to call our Senators again.
Magda and Doug