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  <a href="/blog/blog/272731/mick-s-green-chili">Mick&#39;s Green Chili</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"> <img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/25bba859fc233340d99ed430e25f3dab15385b81/thumb/Green-Chilie-for-Web-1024x768.jpg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="94" width="125" /> <span style="font-size: medium; ">T</span>his is a slightly updated version of the recipe that once appeared on our website. I’ve adjusted some things a little but I don’t mind if you want to make your own adjustments. In fact, I welcome insights, suggestions and questions. <br>
I first encountered Green Chili in the early '80s at Rev. Taylor's restaurant in Niwot, Colorado. It was just about the time that their version of the dish had won a 'Best of ...' award from the Boulder Daily Camera. I was only intermittently carnivorous at the time, having been a vegetarian for a long time and the dish was unknown to me. Green Chili? I was intrigued -- and delighted. Sadly, Rev. Taylor’s is no more but I like to think it lives on in the inspiration it provided for this version of that illustrious dish. <br>
I should add here that this, my version, is not necessarily, a heart-healthy dish though it may well have less fat than your breakfast muffin. <br>
Make the salsa first. You can 'squish' the tomatoes in a bowl with your hands. When I use cilantro I use just the leaves -- I really don't know why -- but this may affect your quantities. I usually get a whole bunch, strip the leaves off, then rinse them and chop them. If you use the lighter stems, too you'll probably get more cilantro -- and, in my book, this can only be a good thing. (If you don't like cilantro, don't even bother with this dish.) Use jalapeños to your taste -- but don't be timid. There will be purists out there who will scowl at all the canned stuff -- who will insist on fresh-roasted chilies, homegrown tomatoes and fresh jalapeños. If you can easily acquire those ingredients, good for you. But tomatoes are often tastier -- and more nutritionally rich -- from a can. Fresh-roasted chilies are seasonal and the canned jalapeño to me has a certain je ne sais quoi that has more to do with warmth than heat. Letting the chili sit overnight softens the effect of the jalapeño, but this is a spicy dish so you might want to try it out before you serve it to your in-laws. Feel free to use less than the whole small can but, again, don't be timid. <br>
If you brown the pork gently, then you can add the cumin at the same time. I like lots of cumin -- and this is my recipe so I suggest at least 1 Tablespoonful (1Tbs) -- more is better. And do not be scared by the amount of oil -- in fact, use more if you want -- it will be skimmed at the end, and more oil can actually help de-fat the pork. And do make sure that you get nicely marbled fatty pork -- this is not a dish that benefits from tough meat. <br><br>
Salsa:<br>
1 14oz. can tomatoes, chopped<br>
1 4oz. can chopped jalapeños<br>
1 bunch scallions, chopped<br>
2 cloves garlic, minced<br>
half bunch cilantro, stems removed and chopped<br>
salt and black pepper to taste<br>
Mix all the ingredients together and set aside.<br>
Green chili:<br>
3 lbs or more, boneless shoulder or butt pork roast, cubed<br>
half cup of vegetable oil<br>
1 28oz. can mild green chilies, chopped<br>
1 lb. tomatillos, diced<br>
2 cups chicken stock <br>
half bunch cilantro, stems removed and chopped<br>
cumin<br>
salt and black pepper to taste <br><br>
Roux<br>
Quarter cup of all-purpose flour<br>
quarter cup of vegetable oil <br><br>
      Brown the cubed pork in batches in the oil and set aside. Into the remaining oil (or added oil if need be) put the cumin, the chopped chilies, the chopped tomatillos and the chicken stock. Deglaze the pot with the stock. Add the chopped cilantro, half the salsa and return the pork cubes. Mix well and set to simmer for a good 45 minutes to an hour. <br>
While the pot is simmering make the roux. I used to make the roux in the pot as part of the whole cooking procedure but found that this caused the chili the burn while cooking. Now I make the roux at the end and add it. <br>
Heat the oil in a pan and add the flour, sprinkling and mixing. Cook for 5 or more minutes until the flour is a nice blond color or is a little darker. When the chili is simmered well, add the roux a bit at a time and stir it well into the liquid while the pot is on gentle heat. Remove the pot from the heat, let the contents relax and gently skim the fat and oil from the surface. When you have removed what you can, refrigerate the chili and skim again the next day. Like many other stews, this one benefits from being left overnight.         As always, take your own risks with this - adjust it 'til you like it your way.<br>
Enjoy.<br></div>
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  <a href="/blog/blog/272725/book-review-tarry-flynn-by-patrick-kavanagh">Book Review: Tarry Flynn by Patrick Kavanagh</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p> <img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/55e0f793083f3028d28fa03e08d136809db7ef28/thumb/6a00d83451bcff69e201157121f5f0970c-800wi.jpg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="81" /><br><span style="font-size: medium; "><b>Tarry Flynn - Patrick Kavanagh </b></span><br><i>Penguin Books, 2000. 192 pages<br>Tarry Flynn </i>was the book we could never keep in the house My parents bought this book over and over again and, time after time, it would be ‘borrowed’ and never returned. Now, some forty years after I first read it, it’s an odd experience to re-visit it.<br>Patrick Kavanagh was born in Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan in 1904 and <i>Tarry Flynn</i>, while not strictly autobiographical, draws on his experiences in the closed, repressed, suffocating atmosphere of a poor rural life. Tarry lives with his widowed mother and three sisters on a small farm in Co. Cavan. His mother is the brains of the family and is driven to distraction by Tarry’s vague ways and love of reading. Tarry at the age of twenty-seven is driven to distraction by his celibate state and the more prosaic frustrations of petty small-farm community life.<br>Tarry sees the beautiful in the ordinary things in nature and finds it odd that his neighbors do not. He craves intimacy with women but constantly subverts all occasions where this might happen. His attitude is oddly misogynistic for one whom you might think possesses a romantic heart.<br>His dealings with the priests, who represent power in his community, is equally self-destructive; while he seems to be somewhat hostile to religion, this hostility finds no articulate voice. And his attitude towards his neighbors is summed up in a short paragraph: “There was a worldly wisdom that looked so much like stupidity that he could not tolerate it. He had seen and observed the worldly-wise men of the place with their platitudes and their unoriginality, and he knew he could never bring himself to act as they acted.”<br>Tarry is plainly living in the wrong place and eventually discovers this for himself.<br>I had remembered the book as funny and charming -- and, indeed, parts of it are -- but I was struck, too, by the sadness at the heart of it. This is repressed Ireland in 1938. The Catholic Church is in charge. The Dance Hall Act, designed to curb lewd behaviour and and to discourage modern influences such as jazz music and modern dancing, is in force. The country is in poverty, the second world War is about to break out and the government is pursuing a policy of rural romanticism later to be described in a speech known as <i>The Ireland We Dream Of</i>. So this is not a nostalgic sojourn in a rural idyll, more a indictment of small-minded Ireland. In his essay about Kavanagh, <i>From Monaghan to the Grand Canal</i> from <i>Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968-1978</i> Seamus Heaney says “ a hard buried life that subsisted beyond the feel of middle-class novelists and romantic nationalist poets, a life denuded of ‘folk’ and picturesque elements, found its expression.”<br>The writing, as you might expect, is strong and clear and at times really lovely. Kavanagh was a powerful poet and, after Yeats, is probably the most-loved of Irish poets. His <i>Collected Poems</i> contains his best work -- <i>In Memory of My Mother, Stony Grey Soil, On Raglan Road</i> and, of course, the hugely powerful <i>The Great Hunger</i>. <i>On Raglan Road</i>, set to the music of<i> Fáinne Geal an Lae</i> has been recorded may times -- my favorite is a version by Dick Gaughan which you’ll find <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Nlk37DR34%20" target="_new">here</a> </p></div>
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  <a href="/blog/blog/259517/book-review-the-dolmen-book-of-irish-christmas-stories-ed-dermot-bolger">Book Review: The Dolmen Book of Irish Christmas Stories ed. Dermot Bolger</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><span style="font-size: larger; "><b> <img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/a1e018961cf0ecb5e348a86c4a1b6d1cd769668a/thumb/Unknown.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="125" /><br>
The Dolmen Book of Irish Christmas Stories </b></span><br><span style="font-size: small; ">Edited by Dermot Bolger</span><br><i>The Dolmen Press 1986, 164 pp. </i><br><br>
The Dolmen Press has, for many years, been the saviour of Irish poetry. Thomas Kinsella’s translation of <i>The Táin</i> and the wonderful bilingual collection, <i>An Duanaire</i>, were both first printed by this company. This anthology of short stories is a commendable addition to their oeuvre. However, I do have indulge in a little surly observation that some aspects of the book are disappointing. <br>
The cover is a mess. It’s a black and white photograph of a snow-encrusted doorway. Fair enough. Then, in clear red lettering, we’re informed that it’s <i>the Dolmen Book of</i>. Below that, in illegible green capitals, it says <i>Irish </i><i>Christmas Stories</i>. Even when you know what it says, it’s difficult to read. No information is given about the writers. Most were known to me but some were not. No information on the sources of the stories or individual copyrights. And then, the text itself is rife with typos. ‘Witress’ for ‘waitress’; ‘loittle’ for ‘little’ and so on. This is just careless and all the more annoying for being so easily avoided. <br>
That said, this is a fine collection. There are twelve stories, some by well-known authors; others are more obscure. <br><i>Whimsical Beasts</i> by Aisling Maguire is a bizarre little story -- an allegory, really. A young woman is kept a virtual prisoner by an older man in an apartment in a high-rise in the city. He smokes himself to death to provide the foil-paper from his cigarette packets that she uses to make origami figures. When he dies, she leaves. <br><i>Christmas Morning</i> by Frank O’Connor is probably the best known of the stories here and the first appearance in the book of the recurring motif of the abusive, drunken Irish husband. O’Connor is never so good as when he’s seeing the world through the eyes of children. <br><i>No Fatted Calf </i>by Anthony C. West is a very strange story -- deliberately so. On Christmas Eve a man, returned from exile, is making his way through a snow storm to his sister’s house ... I’ll say no more in order not ruin the story, but it does deal with moral concerns and guilt -- two of West’s recurring themes. <br><i>Two of a Kind</i> by Seán O’Faoláin is a story about unreliable narrators -- perhaps including the narrator of this story ... <br><i>The Time of Year </i>by William Trevor stood out for me as the best story in the book. The denouement of the story, in lesser hands, could have seemed cynical or cold but, in fact, is deeply humane and consoling. A superb piece of writing -- but it <u>is </u>William Trevor, after all.<br><i>Father Christmas</i> by Michael McLaverty is a also little bit of an oddball. When I finished it, I remember wondering if it was meant to be comic. It seems always on the edge of turning into one of those Irish misery stories of uncommunicative marriages and disappointed lives -- and yet, it seems quite tender in the end. <br><i>Apaches</i> by Pat McCabe or, as he later became known, Patrick McCabe. Here we see some of McCabe’s fascination with the inner, imaginative world and how events in the real world are interpreted and interact with those imaginings. This same spooky world can be seen is his well-know novels <i>The Butcher Boy</i> and <i>Winterwood</i>. perhaps in others, too, but they’re the only ones I’ve read.<br>
Another odd story but a good read. Someone, though -- either the writer or the narrator -- needs to learn that a prairie dog is not a dog! <br><i>The Journey to Somewhere Else</i> by Ann Devlin is more contemporary in feel. Only some of it is set in Ireland (in the 1950s) and the present action is in France. I felt this was a short story that wanted to be a novel and I could have done with more filling out of some details. Still, a haunting tale. <br><i>Finegan’s Ark</i> by James Plunkett somehow reminds me of Ivy Day in the Committee Room by James Joyce. The chat, the stories and the petty politics pervading small lives. Amusing and a little dark. <br><i>A Present for Christmas</i> by Bernard MacLaverty. I read this story years ago in his collection call <i>Secrets</i> and was greatly taken with it. It is by turns grim and hilarious and you find yourself rooting for the protagonist while, at the same time, pitying him. A very spare economical piece of writing. <br><i>Curtains for Christmas</i> by Brian Lynch. Lynch is better known as a poet and this story left me perplexed. It seemed a weirdly visual, slapstick piece if work. Hard really to tell who’s who or what is supposed to be happening or what it’s all supposed to mean. I kept getting the uncomfortable feeling that a joke was being told that I was unable to follow ... <br><i>Christmas</i> by John McGahern is a tale of self-imposed disappointment and a boy propelling himself into an embittered adulthood interspersed with scenes of high hilarity. McGahern is one of the greats and this story is another standout in the collection.<br><br>
The Irish have long been famous for their short story writers -- Joyce, Mary Lavin, Frank O’Connor -- and this book is a reminder of the power of the genre. It’s a good and satisfying collection and editor Dermot Bolger has done a fine job collecting these stories. <br></div>
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  <a href="/blog/blog/254065/book-review-city-of-bohane-by-kevin-barry">Book Review: City of Bohane by Kevin Barry</a>&nbsp;
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When the band travels west on I-70 from Denver to California, I always look forward to that place where the highway ends abruptly in Nevada and makes a T-junction with Highway 15. Your options, at that point, are to travel north to Salt Lake City or south to Las Vegas. I’ve always found this amusing and an odd, existenial choice. SLC is orderly, sober and a quiet place to live -- very much the way I live. Las Vegas, on the other hand, has next to nothing I’m interested in and, to my mind, is mostly brash, vulgar and tacky. And yet, given a free choice, I’d never hesitate to turn south. <br>
I though of that T junction when I read City of Bohane. This is a wild tear of a book. It’s tough, sensitive, civilized, depressing and elating and told in a breath-taking, swirling patois of Hiberno-English and slang. <br>
The story is set in the west of Ireland in about 2054. Some catastrophe has left the world devestated and those who are left live a semi-feral existence and long for the ‘lost time’.<br>
Though the city is divided in various regions -- some are even posh -- one gang known as the Hartnett Fancy rules the roost. Every now and then, other gangs from different parts of the town vie for dominance but none has a leader with the cunning of Logan ‘Long Fella’ Hartnett and, though ostensibly the leader of the gang, it’s his mother, Girly (who is well into her 90s), that is the real power behind any goings-on in town. She lives in her bed in a suite of rooms on the top floor of the big hotel in town, watching old movies of the 1940s and ‘50s, smoking cigarettes and swilling prodigious quantities of John Jameson whisky. Vice is the central preoccupation of life in the Smoketown slum, booze, herb pipes, dream pipes, ‘hoors’. Knives are the weapon of choice -- no firearms to be seen. Outside is the Big Nothin’, populated by the “spud aters”. <br>
There is still commerce in the country and on a sporadic level with other parts of the world -- wine still makes it to the west of Ireland as it did in the days of yore; Galway was once a big wine merchant town. Goods from Portugal -- leather goods particulary. And in this world clothes maketh the man. Central characters are all described at one time or another according to their sartorial preferences. All is meretricious, hedonistic, ambitious, violent and shallow. Except that at the heart of this book there is also love and loneliness and a strange kind of honour. It’s sad, funny and touching.<br>
But it’s the language that makes this book exceptional. Those not acquainted with the lilt and cadence of English as it is spoken in Ireland will have to work a bit. Much of the madcap vocabulary was familiar to me but there are some inventive neoligisms that may take a bit of time to decipher. But don’t be put off. Context and smart guessing will help and nothing crucial will be missed if the odd word fails to connect.</div>
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    <p class="post-info"><span data-time="2012-11-19T12:40:00-07:00" title="November 19, 2012 12:40">11/19/2012</span></p>

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  <a href="/blog/blog/218052/christmas-puddings">Christmas puddings</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/73fd762f27392960799d4934eb07e0be867c0c7b/thumb/DSC_4057.JPG?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="125" /> It seems as if the Christmas season starts earlier and earlier each year. By the time October comes around I tremble as go into the supermarket, in fear that this will be the day I have make my way throught the produce section as, over the PA, some overwrought diva struggles to wrest emotional depth from ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’. By the the time December is here, I think of Scrooge: "Every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart”.<br>So, you might ask, why am I writing (in September) a blog about Christmas pudding? Well, a good Christmas pudding needs to be made well in advance -- a couple of months at least. So, factoring in a little procrastination, this might be a good time to start thinking about it ...<br><br><b>Recipe One</b><br>This recipe is the family Christmas pudding. I got this from my sister Sorcha who got it from our mother and she, in turn, had it from her mother.<br>     My Christmas Day "chore" was to make the hard sauce. I became quite adept at this. The amount of whiskey I put in was more than customary for hard sauce but was generally greeted with approval.<br> <br>Makes about three good-sized puddings.<br>    •    1lb bread crumbs<br>    •    1lb sultanas (golden raisins)<br>    •    1 lb raisins<br>    •    1/2lb mixed chopped fruit -- this is the candied fruit you find in the baking section of the store<br>    •    1/2lb glacé cherries<br>    •    1/2lb mixed nuts -- walnuts, almonds...whatever you like.<br>    •    1/2lb butter<br>    •    1oz mixed spice -- see below for details<br>    •    pinch of salt<br>    •    6 eggs<br>    •    juice and zest of 2 oranges and 2 lemons<br>    •    1 cup Guinness<br>    •    1/2lb brown sugar<br>    •    1 shot whiskey<br>     Mix all the ingredients except the eggs and the breadcrumbs and marinate overnight.<br>     Next day beat the eggs and add to the mixture. Then add the breadcrumbs.<br>     Portion into bowls that have been greased with butter. Cover each bowl with grease-proof paper (in America it's called waxed paper), then with a sheet of aluminum foil and tie securely with kitchen string. Boil/steam 3 to 3 1/2 hours for a large pudding; 2 to 2 1/2 hours for a medium pudding and about 1 hour for a small pudding. Cook the same amount of time when preparing for eating on Christmas Day.<br> <br><b>Recipe Two</b><br> This recipe, I confess, is not mine. When I lived in England I was an avid reader of 'The Guardian' newspaper. A regular columnist was Richard Boston, who wrote about food and beer and other such happy indulgences. This recipe appeared in one of his columns. I have since found a copy of it in Jane Grigson's 'British Cooking' which has lots of great recipes and is a lovely read.<br>     I've made very slight changes, mostly to 'translate' the English measurements. In the past I've also substituted butter for the suet. The addition of whisky is mine and is optional; that's how I remember it from my childhood. The mixed spice recipe is also mine and may be amended to taste. It will make more than you need for this recipe but it gets a bit fussy and unpredictable when you scale recipes down too far.<br>     For the hard sauce we always used butter, sugar and whisky but I've also occasionally eaten this with whipped cream and sometimes with custard. You could probably reheat the pudding in a microwave (without the foil!) but I'm a traditionalist in a lot of ways and have never tried it. It can be sliced and fried in butter -- very good for Boxing Day breakfast.<br> <br>Christmas Pudding<br>    •    10oz fresh breadcrumbs<br>    •    8oz soft brown sugar<br>    •    8oz currants<br>    •    10oz raisins (chopped)<br>    •    8oz golden raisins<br>    •    2oz mixed peel<br>    •    8oz suet (shredded) -- or butter<br>    •    3/4 teaspoon salt<br>    •    2 teaspoons mixed spice*<br>    •    grated rind of 1 lemon<br>    •    1 Tablespoon lemon juice<br>    •    2 large eggs (beaten)<br>    •    4oz milk<br>    •    8oz Guinness<br>    •    shot of whiskey<br>     Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the liquids and mix well. Divide between two bowls. Cover with greaseproof paper and foil. Wrap with string. Steam for 7 - 8 hours.<br>     You can keep in the freezer or in the 'fridge for several weeks. When I was a kid they would be kept in a cool pantry for months!<br>     To reheat: Steam for 2 - 3 hours or see above for suggestions. Douse with warm whiskey or brandy, flame and serve with hard sauce or whatever sauce you like.<br> <br>Mixed Spice<br>    •    1 teaspoon ground allspice<br>    •    3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon<br>    •    1 teaspoon ground cloves<br>    •    1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger<br>    •    3/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg<br>    •    grating of black pepper<br><br><br>Enjoy.<br>Mick</p></div>
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  <a href="/blog/blog/204638/reviews-from-the-past">Reviews from the past</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p><i>From the archives.<br>These reviews were written back around 2004 but never made it to the website. It’s not a complete inventory of books I had been reading at the time -- more a smattering of titles that came to mind. </i><br>The first few I suppose I would think of as travel books -- <b>Bill Bryson</b> -- <i>Notes from a Small Island</i>; <b>Peter McCarthy</b> - <i>McCarthy’s Bar</i>; <b>Cole Moreton</b> -- <i>Hungry for Home</i>.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/c6c33571f7bc819f0ae2c7cecfed55638580ec2d/thumb/NotesIsland.jpg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="84" />  <b>Bill Bryson</b> is a wonderfully appealing writer and his travelogue of Great Britain is both amusing and informative. I lived in England for a number of years and have a great affection for the place. Bryson captures the English spirit with an affectio￼nate net and pins it firmly to the page. And, while he is endlessly amusing, he manages to be perfectly truthful about English foibles. Many years ago I read <b>Paul Theroux</b>’s <i>Kingdom by the Sea</i> and, though I think his observations were (for the time) painfully accurate, I found the book depressing and more-than-a-little mean-spirited. Anyway, I recommend the Bryson without reservation; the best book on Britain of that time that I know of.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/89a3cad794e746e225bf93a2b3da772b1c7a7934/thumb/McCarthysBar.jpg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="83" /><br>The late <b>Peter McCarthy</b> made his name with McCarthy’s Bar, which despite its madcap and slightly loony feel, had an underly￼ing current of identity crisis. Born into an Irish family in England, he doesn’t feel English and yet somehow doesn’t manage to feel fully Irish either. He wrestles with the notion of settling in Ireland and travels the country in order to gain some insights to help him make his decision. It’s a funny and often touching book.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/c11526db91fd8a8527fc03606f8f21c68ce0adff/thumb/Hungry.jpg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="125" /><br><b>Cole Moreton</b>’s book, <i>Hungry for Home</i>, describes the circumstances events of the evacuation of the Blasket islands, off the coast of Kerry, in the early 1950s. He does an extraordinary job of describing what island life meant to to the￼ islanders and, later in the book, the yearning in the minds of those now long moved to America. There are many fine books about life on the Blaskets -- my favourite is <i>Fiche Blian ag Fás</i> (Twenty Years a-Growing) by <b>Muiris Ó Súilleabháin</b> -- but Moreton’s book is a valuable addition. I think I have all these books beside each other on the shelf because each of them deals with a notion of ‘home’. Bryson is an American who lived in Britain for many years; he wrote this book just before returning to the States. McCarthy, the English-Irishman wonders where he belongs. Moreton, the London journalist looks at the displaced Islanders in Ireland and America. I was brought up in Ireland, spent my twenties in England and now live in the US; I’m not sure where I belong ... <br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/66e580f3bc3d1cffdbd907aeee4e9d135e39882b/thumb/Rotters.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="81" /><br>Which brings me to <b>Jonathan Coe</b>’s <i>The Rotters' Club</i>. Set in England in the 1970s -- the very time I lived there -- this was pure nostalgia for me. ￼References to music, the social and political scene, the pub culture were all spot-on. I enjoyed it a lot. I don’t know what you’d think of it if you’d weren’t there ...<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/490e24600e25feb93105d327fa2ecc986c38359b/thumb/DarkMaterials.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="107" width="125" /><br>This ye￼ar I also read <b>Philip Pullman</b>’s <i>His Dark Materials</i> trilogy. Just wonderful, -- imaginative and extremely well-written. It got into a bit of trouble for being ‘anti- Christian’ but that quieted down a bit when the Archbishop of Canterbury came out in favour of it as a moral work. You’ll find a fascinating discussion between the two here.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/7aa0c1e9d1db7856a52c222c64e84bc627a68e19/thumb/Godless.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="83" /> On a similar note, I also found a wonderful book called <i>Godless Morality</i> by <b>Richard Holloway.</b> It argues that our understanding of the word ‘God’, and what is expected of us in that name, is so varied as to be essentially useless in any discussion of ethics, it behooves us to drop the whole notion and work from￼ a humanistic approach. As someone who is more than a little tired of hearing that I can have no real morality if I don’t believe in God, this was a refreshing read, coming as it did, from the pen of the Bishop of Edinburgh. So, if you’re tired of hearing the argument that you have to be religious to be good, you’ll like this book.<br>I’ve also read a fair bit of Buddhist thought -- more from a Western approach than from the classic Buddhist texts. I’ve found <b>Pema Chödron</b> particularly illuminating and I’ve enjoyed the work of <b>Sharon Salzberg</b>, <b>Mark Epstein</b>, <b>Stephen Batchelor</b>, <b>Panjak Mishra</b> and many others. <b>Thomas Merton</b>’s commentaries on Eastern thought have provided some wonderful insight, too. I’ve been meditating for a number of years, so it’s kind of inevitable that I would start reading Buddhist ideas. I must say, I’m greatly impressed with the Buddhist approach. They don’t speak of good and evil but rather skillful and unskillful means; they speak of pain rather than of sin. No Ten Commandments but an Eightfold Path. Buddhist meditation techniques are quite marvelous and the psychology profoundly liberating. I do have some problems with the practice of Buddhism. For a religion/philosophy that eschews ‘attachment’, I’ve noted a lot of people attached to many aspects of the discipline and to the notion of being ‘a Buddhist’; but, in all, it’s a rich humanistic philosophy that is firmly rooted in a kind approach to life and oneself.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/cb3cae0e0c04342faed635415dd752b044051d60/thumb/Wherever.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="83" /> Two good books on meditation are <i>Teach Yourself how to Meditate in 10 Easy Lessons</i> by <b>Eric Harrison</b> and <i>Wherever You Go, There You Are</i> by <b>Jon K￼abat-Zinn</b>. The former is a practical, no-nonsense guide to meditating, with observations on gullibility, cults, the vanity of ‘self-improvement’. A wonderfully refreshing take on a subject that can overindulge in the ‘flaky’. Kabat-Zinn might be on the ‘flakier’ side for some tastes but I found the book inspiring and warm and very real.<br>A fiction I enjoyed on the Buddhist theme was called <i>Buddha Da</i> by <b>Anna Donovan</b>. It’s set in Glasgow and is the story of what happens when house-painter Jimmy (what else would a Glaswegian be called) decides to take an interest in Buddhism. The story is told from three points of view -- Jimmy’s, his wif￼e Liz’s and his daughter, Anne Marie’s. The book is written in Glasgow dialect and the voice of Anne Marie is particularly rich. The dialect might slow you down at the beginning but you’ll soon get used to it and it’s a lovely warm voice -- I have family in Glasgow, so I’m a bit ahead of the game.<br>I’ve read a good number of mysteries, of late. Some good offerings from <b>Renee Airth</b> - - <i>River of Darkness</i> and a few by <b>Charles Todd</b> - <i>A Test of Wills</i>, particularly. Both these authors set their books in immediately ￼post-World War One England. The books are pretty dark and fairly disturbing - even harrowing. Lighter fare (though not frivolous) has included books by <b>Michael Dibdin</b> -- <i>Medusa</i> and <b>Donna Leon</b> -- <i>Murder at La Fenice</i>. Both writers place their books in Italy -- Leon’s all take place, I believe, in Venice. Anyway, they’re very fine reads and it’s always nice to get away to somewhere different.<br>Getting “away to somewhere different”, may not be such a pleasure in a couple of mysteries that I recommend but which might not please everyone. <i>The Hard Shoulder</i> by <b>Chris Petit </b>and <i>The Crooked Man</i> by <b>Philip Davison</b> are both very well written and and very quiet books. The crime world is a shabby, grey place in these books but, in both cases, the main characters -- and many of the lesser characters -- are what keep the interest. ‘Engaging’ is not the word I would use but you do end up caring and sympathizing for these people, living out grim existences in Thatcher’s Britain.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/8475056e2f6fd43d5810f538331b1d11c09135c4/thumb/Morality.jpg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="86" /> <i>Morality Play</i> by <b>Barry Unsworth</b> was a good read -- I got this one from Mike. Despite one slightly heavy hand when pointing out the obvious -- and, to be fair, it was only once, but it grated -- he wields a graphic pen. The book is set in￼ Medieval England and involves a band of ‘players’ -- traveling actors. They come to a town where a murder has just been committed and rather than play their usual performance they improvise a speculative enactment of the murder. “I believe this is how plays will be made in the future” intones one -- that was the heavy-handed bit I was referring to.<br>This performance is very popular, but also raises many questions as to what really happened. The time and place are wonderfully captured and worth the read just for that. A film, called <i>The Reckoning</i> has been made of the book; it stars William Dafoe. I’ve not seen it or heard anything about its virtues or lack thereof.<br>Unsworth won the Booker Prize for his novel, <i>Sacred Hunger</i> (also a great read).in 1992. Last year I thought I’d try the Booker winner, <b>DBC Pierre</b>’s <i>Vernon God Little </i>and I have to say I was grievously disappointed. I didn’t find it funny -- it reminded me of another very unfunny book I once tried to read <i>Confederacy of Dunces</i>. That book came recommended by a number of people and I tried hard to like it, but I found the humour unwitty and broad, the characters unsympathetic caricatures -- it was hard to care. The same with ‘Vernon’.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/ca0a58442d3681640ecbbd22e48adff81059a8de/thumb/BrickLane.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="82" /> On the other hand, a runner-up for the Booker Prize completely won my heart. <i>Brick Lane</i> by <b>Monica Ali</b> was a delightful book. It’s the story of the bride in an arranged marriage who comes at the age of 18 to the East End of London from Bangladesh. She speaks no English and knows no-one, not even her husband, Chanu -- one of the best-drawn characters I have read in years. The book is at ￼times hilarious and at other times wrenching, but always you feel great affection for all the characters and the authors affection for them, too. This is a wonderful, richly human book.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/77ec3a472372d3080f34668c0e437bbf10096538/thumb/Walking.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="75" /> On the ‘Sci-Fi’ front -- no doubt, I’ll be offending somebody’s genre definitions here -- I recall <b>Neil Gaiman</b>’s <i>American Gods</i>, <b>William Gibson</b>’s <i>The Neuromancer</i> and I<b>ain Banks</b>’ <i>Walking on Glass</i>. Gaiman was great -- powerful, imaginative and vivid characters; I was sorry when it was over. Gibson, I had a little trouble with. Sense of place got very slippery for me, and, though I came to root for the main character, sense of his identity was pretty slippery, too. Not unrecommended -- I imagine many people would love (did love!) this book. Iain Banks was a revelation; got the book as a present from my old friend, Chris Bareford, when on holiday in Englan￼d. Three very different stories are heading for a conclusion involving them all. On their own, they’re great stories -- one is an absolutely heart-rending love story -- then they tumble in together at the end. Very satisfying; very good.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/ba8dd09a5cdca88fe7c058356c6ce7a387fd058d/thumb/Strangers.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="125" /> A great little book is <i>Strangers </i>by <b>Taichi Yamada</b>. I’ll not say too much about it; only that I read it in one sitting and so did some others I know.<br>On the nonfiction front I can recommend <i>The Star Factory</i> by <b>Ciaran Carson</b>. It’s memoir of Belfast, my mother’s home town. Brian gave it to me for Christmas and I’ve been dipping into it off and on all year. Carson really knows how to write -- check out the highly recommended <i>Last Night’s Fun</i>. I am greatly looking forward to his translation of <i>Cúirt a’ Mhean Oíche</i> by <b>Brian Merriman</b>. There have been numerous translations (and partial translations) of this 18th Century poem over the years -- I’ve read some parts translated by <b>Brendan Behan</b>, <b>Frank O’Connor</b> and a fairly recent translation by <b>Seamus Heaney</b> of the first 200 words or so and some of the very end of the poem. All the above translations have much to recommend them. But just recently the Guardian newspaper of England printed an excerpt of the first 30 or so lines as translated by Carson and it was just great -- I can’t wait.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/e5f5208285442fcd5705c54763412a6da1ae6d20/thumb/Clare.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="125" /> And while we’re on poetry, I’d like to mention<i> I am</i> -- the selected poetry o￼f <b>John Clare </b>-- English, born 1793 in Northamptonshire. Most self-educated and later suffered severe depression -- and wrote lovely verse.<br>Other nonfiction I enjoyed: <i>Michaelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling</i> by <b>Ross King</b> - given to me by Mike’s brother, Jim Fitzmaurice, when we were staying as guests of him and his wife Robin. Jim is a fine muralist, so, as you might imagine, this was of particular interest to him -- but it’s a fascinating book about the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the character of Michaelangelo and his times come vividly alive. So too with <i>Will in the World</i> by <b>Stephen Greenblatt</b> -- a ‘speculative biography’ (quotes are mine) of William Shakespeare. The book starts out in a conjectural tone as what events ‘might have’ happened to Shakespeare or what his situation might have been, but an initial frustration with all the positing soon gave way to fascination as the world of the day is brought vividly to life -- and what a cruel world it was. Torture and execution as public entertainment ...<br>Two memoirs -- <i>Are You Somebody?</i> by <b>Nuala O’Faoláin</b> and <i>Chronicles</i> by <b>Bob Dylan</b>. The former is a riveting read, particularly for someone who grew up in Ireland in the 50s and 60s. The feel of the country is right there and the repression and narrowness are painted all too vividly, Her childhood of neglect has many resonances for me.<br>The Dylan started out promisingly -- after all, here is the enigmatic Bob Dylan talking openly and uncryptically and saying ... nothing. Nothing of real interest, anyway. It’s engaging enough for a while to hear about his early life in the first person but I found no original thinking or observation ... I mean I’m not looking for anything earth-shattering, but the Dylan of this book is a bore. I can’t help but feel that he’s been so successful at being elusive -- which is at least a silly vanity -- because there’s nobody there. Sorry.<br>Have started reading <i>Seán Ó Riada, his Life and Work</i> by <b>Tomás Ó Cannáin</b>. I have a copy of this in Irish that my Dad gave me and into which I have delved over the years. It’s an account of the life and influence of the Irish composer/arranger who was so instrumental (no pun intended) in the great resugence of interest in traditional Irish music fifty<br>years ago<br><br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/95f9ac5e5d2233ee735dbc8332858f0d24e7a2bc/thumb/Card.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="94" /> And speaking of books in Irish, <i>Céard é English?</i> by <b>Lorcán Ó Treasaigh</b> (the title translates as ‘What is English?’) is an absolutely wonderful, funny and moving account of a young boy brought up in an Irish-speaking family in the middle of an English-speaking comm￼unity. I’m not sure that a translation would do it much credit -- in fact, it might get into some very weird postmodern convolutions if it tried. But, if your Irish is half- way decent, give it a try -- highly recommended!<br>Two books that I would like to recommend very highly are by <b>Graham Swift</b>. They’re quiet, character-driven and set (mostly) in London. <i>Last Orders</i> and <i>The Light of Day</i> are both lovely, introspective and, ultimately, affirming books.<br>A couple of good short story collections are <i>Interpreter of Maladies</i> by <b>Jhumpa </b><b>Lahiri </b>and <i>The Whole Story</i> by <b>Ali Smith</b>.<br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/adc7213a86be9bbfe0f260af9b16f40f836be77f/thumb/FreshFood.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="100" /> And finally -- a great cookbook: <i>Fresh Food Fas</i>t by <b>Peter Berley</b>. This is wonderful vegetarian food with the recipes divided according to the season￼s. Each menu is based around a game plan that can be great help in seeing the structure of the meal before you make it. Everything I’ve tried has been extraordinarily good. Another highly recommended book.<br><br><br><br><br><br> </p></div>
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<h2 class="heading-secondary heading-blog alt-font">
  <a href="/blog/blog/200127/book-review-the-cat-s-table">Book Review - The Cat&#39;s Table</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><b><span style="font-size: larger; "><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/f48f06c13cdbc9567cfd841623a0f37de0c8fd07/thumb/Cats.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="85" /><br>
The Cat’s Table </span></b><br>
Michael Ondaatje <br><i>Knopf, 288 pp. </i><br><br>
I love Michael Ondaatje’s work. I haven’t read all of it but several years ago I discovered <i>The Collected Works of Billy the Kid</i> and later, <i>Secular Love</i>, a collection of poetry. Then I found <i>The English Patient </i>and marvelled, yet again, at his superb way with words. He remains a poet-craftsman. Every sentence, every word, is honed to an exact fit and yet seems totally natural and organic. Like John Banville, he also has that way of quite suddenly focusing on a moment that might be passed over and imbuing it with taut meaning. In ‘The Cat’s Table’, for instance, there is an epiphany at a party where the narrator’s wife adjusts the strap of her dress while dancing with another man and it is suddenly clear that the marriage is in trouble. It’s only a simple-seeming gesture and it’s totally convincing. <br><i>The Cat’s Table</i> is Ondaatje’s latest novel and it’s probably his most accessible. He reads like a memoir and, indeed, I’m not convinced that at least some parts of are not based in fact. <br>
It’s the 1950s and an eleven-year-old boy, Michael, is traveling, if not alone, then certainly unsupervised, by ship to England where he will meet his mother. Flavia Prins, an older society lady, is to “keep an eye” on him but, in fact, they only meet a couple of times the entire trip. His older cousin Emily is on board but rather than be his supervisor, he becomes her confidante. There are two other boys who become his friends, the frail Ramadhin who is to stay a lifelong friend and the tearaway Cassius. The book comprises the boys’ adventures on the ship and their interaction with their fellow diners at the Cat’s Table -- the table that is at the social antipode of the Captain’s Table. It’s the place where the “insignificant” people dine. Among these people are Max Mazappa, a musican who is given to pronouncements on women; Mr. Daniels who is transporting exotic plants to England; Mr Fonseka, a teacher of literature and Miss Lasqueti and her pigeons. Some figure more prominently than others, but these and other character are all woven into the experiences of the boys. There’s an Australian girl who rollerskates around the deck at dawn, an ailing multimillionaire, a deaf girl. None of these characters, however, read as caricatures and, as I’ve said before, the novel reads more like a memoir than a novel. So I found it a little odd that in the final pages some of the ‘threads’ of the story were pulled together to present a plot. I didn’t feel it was necessary, nor did it add to the book. Really, the stories and the ruminations thereon were enough. <br>
About half way through the book the action moves for a while to a time many years after the events on the boat and the implications of some of the events on the ship take on new significance. <br>
I do realize that there are those who are deeply frustrated by a lack of plot. Actually, most of the negative reviews that I’ve seen of this book mention being unable to finish the book for that very reason. So, caveat emptor.<br>
However, the book is beautifully written -- just gorgeous at times -- and deeply humane and generous. It is compassionate about what is involved in growing up and seems to suggest that it’s a process that lasts a lifetime. I think I agree with that. <br></div>
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    <p class="post-info"><span data-time="2012-08-15T04:03:19-06:00" title="August 15, 2012 04:03">08/15/2012</span></p>

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<h2 class="heading-secondary heading-blog alt-font">
  <a href="/blog/blog/196525/book-review-the-map-that-changed-the-world">Book Review -- The Map that Changed the World</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p><span style="font-size: larger; "><b><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/cf2c3147ac8cd2c878a56d1825a5d37b2b62d320/thumb/Map.jpeg?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="125" width="85" /><br>The Map That Changed the World</b></span><br>William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology<br>Simon Winchester<br><i>Harper Collins pp.301</i><br><br><br>I borrowed this book from Jean’s cousin, Tom Harrison. The band was in Pennsylvania to play a gig for the Wellsboro Community Concert series and we stayed with Tom and Carolynn, his wife, for several most enjoyable days. I’m not sure how the subject came up but at some point we started conversing about this book so I arranged to borrow it and read it when I got a chance.<br>In his usual style -- if <i>The Madman and the Professor </i>is anything to go by -- Winchester writes a great tale while also overstating his case somewhat. The fact is that the map in question didn’t change the world but was one of many pieces of information -- most notably Darwin’s Origin of the Species -- that affected how the world was seen.<br>William Smith was an Oxfordshire engineer, largely self-taught, who worked mostly on canal-building and drainage schemes. In both of these endeavors he excelled and, at one point in his life, made a very good living. He was also intensely curious about the fossils that he encountered as he went about digging into the Earth. It was he who eventually linked certain types of fossils with certain types of rock strata and over time he compiled a geological map of Britain. This not only had huge practical implications when it came to activities such as mining and canal building, but also meant that the eternal verities such as the age of the Earth had to be reconsidered.<br>At the time, the Biblical account of creation was taken quite literally and it had been ascertained by one James Ussher (while he was bishop of Armagh) that the world began at 9 a.m. on Monday, October 23, 4004 B.C. Smith’s findings and resultant map suggested a planet that was much older than that and, of course, cast doubt on the literal truth of the Bible. Still, many notions about the origins of our world were changing at the time and Smith’s contribution, while important, was not as shattering as the title of the book might suggest.<br>Much is also made in the book of how badly Smith was treated at the time and how, at one point, he was reduced to penury. Well, it’s true that he seems to have been widely plagiarized -- not uncommon at the time -- and shunned by an aristocratic, dilettante Geological Society that was no more than a dinner club for rich fossil collectors. Frankly, there’s nothing surprising there and Smith seems to have brought many of his troubles on himself. He habitually lived beyond his means and missed deadlines set by his publisher and even though his contribution went unrecognized for many years, in the end he was given full credit and treated generously.<br>What confounds me about the book is <i>how</i> did Smith go about making this map. I know that from some work he did in mines that he ascertained that certain fossils are to be found in certain rocks. I know that he covered much ground, literally, collecting fossils and from these fossils identifying the rock that lay beneath the surface but I don’t get a picture of how he did this. Britain is over eighty thousand square miles. Even if he only took one sample from each square mile ... Where is he going to find fossils at the drop of a hat? I could go outside today and couldn’t find a fossil if my life depended on it. I would have liked a clearer picture of what was involved in the making of the map.<br>Still, Winchester, knows how to tell a story. He may exaggerate the drama but that’s what much good storytelling is all about.</p></div>
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  <div class="message"><p> Whenever the band rehearses we like to have something to eat and over the years various comestibles have taken centre stage. Until very recently it has been the bread pudding described below. This came about accidently. Jean and I have a traditional Sunday breakfast of toasted English muffins, topped with goat cheese, some chopped spinach and poached eggs. One Sunday, for some reason, we had to skip breakfast and a packet of English muffins sat there sadly, threatening to go stale. I had also been defaulting to store-bought ‘band chow’ and was pondering what I might make for rehearsal that, while it might not be exactly ‘healthful’, might also not be full of unpronounceable ingredients. So, I thought “bread pudding!”. I did a quick Google search -- I’m not a baker, really -- and found a recipe. The recipe below is based on one that featured Bays English Muffins. I’ve adapted it slightly.<br>You might want more chocolate chips in there or you might choose to skip the chocolate all together. Chocolate can be a bit of a bully in puddings, overpowering everything else.<br>We would often have it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.<br>Enjoy<br><br><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/35514/9a656553e6eec136784411b024a1d80ae53051d0/medium/320px-A_slice_of_bread_pudding.JPG?1375882544" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="225" width="300" /><br><br>4 eggs<br>2 egg yolks<br>1 pint heavy cream<br>3/4 cup of brown sugar<br>1 teaspoon lemon essence<br>2 teaspoons vanilla essence<br>1/4 cup chocolate chips<br>2 ripe bananas<br>1 packet of English Muffins (6 muffins)<br><br>In a large bowl:<br>Combine the eggs, cream and sugar and beat with a whisk until they are well mixed and the sugar is no longer grainy.<br>Add the vanilla essence and lemon essence.<br>Add the chocolate chips and chopped bananas and mix in well.<br>Cut the muffins into 1/2 inch cubes and add to the mixture making sure that all the muffin pieces are submerged.<br>Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least for a few hours. Mix it up a few times to make sure all the muffin pieces get soaked. Add a little milk if necessary.<br><br>Preheat oven to 350º F<br><br>Butter a large pan -- 9” X 11” or thereabouts<br>Spoon or pour the mixture into it.<br>You may now place the pan in the oven or you may place it in a larger tray in the oven and pour boiling water into the tray. In either case, it’s a good idea to ‘tent’ the pan with a sheet of foil to keep in the moisture.<br>Bake for about 1 hour</p></div>
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</article>  <article class="post blog-article full-item post-full" data-controller="zoogle-video" data-action="message@window-&gt;zoogle-video#handleVimeoPostMessage">
    
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  <a href="/blog/blog/193293/an-irish-storyteller">An Irish Storyteller</a>&nbsp;
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    <p class="post-info"><span data-time="2012-07-25T12:57:55-06:00" title="July 25, 2012 12:57">07/25/2012</span></p>

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