"This is considered a most excellent and nutritious meal for invalids."

Pish-pash is yummy! Recipe available here, from an English-language Indian cookbook from the late 19th century, along with other recipes for bhahjee, dal, pickle, and, uh, brain cakes.

Well, the East End, anyway. (Zing!)

Pittsburgh gets top billing as a "brainy city."

Nice Face. I Think I'll Take It.

At the risk of putting all the other photos on this blog to shame, I'm posting this beauty, taken by our friend Sarah Olbrich, a professional children's photographer here in the 'burgh.

What I've been reading.

Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist, by Adrian Desmond & James Moore. You made a monkey out of me, Charles. At 680 pages, this was actually the lighter option in Darwin biographies, versus two volumes of more than a thousand pages. Pleasantly, though, this was not at all a fact dump - more in the old-timey English biography tradition. Very good. Does anyone have any clue as to what Darwin's gastrointestinal problem was? Poor guy. 

Benji's Summer Pursuits

We'll miss the warm weather -- the spontaneous backyard get-togethers, the improvised construction sites, and just the general shirtlessness of it all.

Party with young children = Ingmar Bergman movie.

My photos from parties lately have all been the same: a bunch of adults, each looking intently downward, each in a different direction. Only connect, people. Only connect.

New Crib

Just wondering.

What is the difference between hi-jinks and shenanigans? Discuss.

What I've been reading.

Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt. For a popular quasi-science book, this was really, really well-researched. I highly recommend the footnotes and the sources cited therein. Oh, and the main text was good, too - nice balance of a broad overview of different problems and characteristics of traffic, with just enough detail in certain areas to allow you to dive in. It was useful to me that the author is a cyclist, since that gave him a special perspective. Oh, and hey, speaking of cyclists, can you say $20 a month tax credit for bike commuters? WOOOOOOOOO!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!! $700 billion bailout? TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk. Pretty funny in parts, actually. Unfortunately, I think having seen the movie kind of ruins a certain something about the novel, but still. Having said that, I do not think there is any part of me that understands the impulses driving the men in this book. It's presented, I think, as a kind of universal - or at least widely spread - impulse among men, but no. Just no. Where is the book about being a man for us big babies? Don't say The Ambassadors. Though actually, I think Lambert Strether, if properly motivated, would surprise a lot of people in fight club. (I should add I do understand the impulse to populate one's living space entirely with Ikea products.)

Benji and Anne at the same age.

Hm. These children look nothing alike to me. Does the rest of the world beg to differ?

Playdough-off!

Jeanne here.

So I thought I would start making playdough for Benji, mainly because the way he likes to play with it (rolling, smashing, making dinosaur/animal/truck tracks in it, filling dumptrucks with it) requires vast stretches of playdough. I tried three recipes, and I thought I'd rate them here, in case any of you are ever thinking of making Play-dough.



1. Uncooked Playdough. Totally lame -- crumbly, not pliable. Let's not bother.










2. Cooked Playdough. This is the one my mom used to make for us, from a recipe courtesy of her friend Anita. The recipe makes a ton -- perfect for Jurassic landscapes.










3. Jello Playdough. I found this recipe on the Internet, and it was claimed that it would stand up to the real thing.











Our contenders: Cooked Playdough (foreground), Jello Playdough (left background), and "Play-doh" (right background).











First Test: Impressions.

The Cooked Playdough easily makes a nice, detailed impression of tire marks and dino feet. A strong showing.













The Jello Playdough seems to want to spring back into shape -- not surprisingly, given the gelatin. This poses a problem for impressions.
Not quite as deep or accurate.












Play-doh makes a very nice impression -- perfectly crisp -- but it's actually harder to make an impression in it than in the Cooked Playdough, since it's not as pliable.









Second test: Cut-outs.



Cooked Playdough and Jello Playdough had similar drawbacks for cut-outs. They were both a little too pliable for this purpose, so the cut-outs were not crisp.











Yes, the industrial chemicals won this round, hands-down.












Third Test: Extrusion.



Ah, extrusion. Everyone's favorite use for Playdough. Hasbro must know this, because Play-doh extrudes marvelously, with crisp, clean edges.












But the Cooked Playdough does pretty well, too -- less raggedy than the Jello Playdough.












Well, I will continue making playdough for Benji, given that he likes to use several cubic inches of it at once, but I'm under no illusions that I've matched Play-doh. Well-played, Hasbro. Well-played. Of the homemade versions, I'll stick with what I grew up with.

Anita's Playdough recipe:

3 c. flour
1 1/2 c. salt
2 Tablespoons cream of tartar
3 c. water
food coloring
3 Tablespoons cooking oil

Mix dry ingredients.
Mix wet ingredients.
Blend dry and wet, then stir over low heat until the mixture forms a ball (5 to 10 minutes).
Knead a bit, and let cool. Store in an airtight container.