Sushiesque

When dude meant the opposite

The first definition that the OED gives for dude, n. is not what you'd expect: it describes a person utterly antithetical to Jeffrey Lebowski.

1. A name given in ridicule to a man affecting an exaggerated fastidiousness in dress, speech, and deportment, and very particular about what is æsthetically 'good form'; hence, extended to an exquisite, a dandy, 'a swell'.

As in "The intense dudeness of Lord Beaconsfield."* As in—

[Evander Berry Wall] was called the best-dressed American in Europe, the King of the Dudes. He was reported to possess 285 pairs of pants, 5,000 custom-tailored neckties. It was rumored that he changed his ties six times a day. [...] Sometimes he changed into one of his crimson satin lounging suits to lead one of his chows, always named either Chi Chi or Toi Toi, through the streets of Paris.

It must be a splendid thing, to be King of the Dudes: addressing someone as "dude," you would be addressing him as your subject. Who, I wonder, reigns now?

*We are indebted to Rick for bringing this to our attention some months ago.

A brief administrative note

Dear readers,

Due to some email complications, I hadn't been notified of your many charming comments, which have now been approved and belatedly published.

Thank you,
Christine

The east coast will miss you

I have seen purer liquors, better segars, finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier courtezans here, than in any other place that I have ever visited; and it is my unbiased opinion that California can and does furnish the best bad things that are obtainable in America.*

*Hinton Helper (1829-1909), quoted in Imbibe! , David Wondrich's splendid book on old cocktails. (According to Wikipedia, Mr. Helper was an anti-slavery white supremacist.)

Poke

Summer Street, Somerville, on the way to the Sherman a couple Saturdays ago.

Stuff Extremely White People Like

War steeds, mead, &c.

Scandinavian Aggression's political platform calls for the conversion of government buildings into functioning mead halls, and the establishment of Viking Appreciation Day—"Note: this day should be everyday and permanently supersede all other appreciation days currently in effect."

While we hesitate to devalue Administrative Professionals' Day like that, we do support designating "the highest level of government as the Althing and top government official as Lawspeaker," because such a regime would inevitably have to get itself a Lögberg. We've always wanted a Law Rock.

See also: Our preferred apocalypse.

The Happy Profession

The day after Memorial Day, Gwynne and I infiltrated Lego's U.S. headquarters to spy on the model builders. The results of our jaunt to Enfield, Connecticut are now up on Babble.

Above: They are assembling a vast (but very short) Jedi army.

Previously: Gwynne & Christine hang out at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

Cucumber Thyme (Experimental Sorbet No. 2)

For a very small, tentative batch:

1 cucumber, seeded, not peeled
7 lemon thyme sprigs*
juice of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/2 lime
3 tablespoons raw cane sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
a little bit of sea salt (5 delicate turns or so out of my salt grinder, set to fine)
1 tablespoon gin infused with lemon thyme**
1 egg white

Puree cucumber and thyme together, and put the resulting mush through a fine-mesh strainer.

Stir in remaining ingredients. Whisk egg white to a froth and stir into cucumber mixture until combined well.

Process in an ice cream maker until it looks like sorbet, and then let it nap in a freezer for at least a couple hours.

*Gotten at the Harvard Farmers' Market (the one by the Charles Hotel) on Sunday.
**This is probably overkill. Optional.

See also: Experimental Sorbet No. 1.

Clarification

As you may know, Sushiesque.com has a stridently pro-pants agenda. But we want to be clear: not these pants.

That is not what we meant at all.

Auspicious beginning

Puppies for everyone

Gay Pride loves puppies.

Anti-Scientological Piracy loves puppies.

I feel a Venn diagram coming on.

Above: I took a lot of pictures over the weekend. I would caption them but I need to take several naps.

Why you must not eject Louise Brooks from your freight train

As demonstrated in The Beggars of Life (1928).

• Before the film has even begun, she has killed a man and put on his clothes
• The cops will be after her until she is dead, and they've got telegraphy
• She has never actually hopped a train before
• She will fall in with a gang of hoboes
• Hoboes are fickle

• Before she escapes to Canada in a stolen car driven by a handsome young vagrant, there will be
  • a hobo keg party
  • a hobo kangaroo court
  • a hobo brawl
  • the near-constant threat of hobo lechery

Why You Must Not Eject Louise Brooks From Your Horse-Drawn Buggy: similar reasons.
Why You Must Not Eject Louise Brooks From Your Haystack: similar reasons.

Screen captures from the Grapevine Video DVD.

You also mustn't: marry a flapper; marry a Mormon.

Double negative space

Above: Richard B. "Rico" Modica Way, May 13th. Below: Last week.