This is the item for telling people about all the *other* wonderful conferences on Grex. Fall Agora is NOT everything - there are about ONE HUNDRED other conferences here on Grex, on all sorts of subjects - books, poetry, cooking, sex, web pages, women, role playing games - you name it. Type "help conferences" at the Ok: prompt to see the list, or just check out the ones that are touted in this item.95 responses total.
I agree.
Science fiction continues to entertain us on TV, in books and at the movies. Join sf to talk about it. Heck, there is even some games with Science Fiction or Fantasy themes.
I need to get caught up on the Cooking conference; I've not read through the 'recipe' items.
If you like using anything that involves a radio in it, such as cell phones and cordless phones, then join radio.
Do visit the Enigma Conference, gentle reader. You will
not be sorry that you did.
The poetry conference could use your feedback and contribution to its storehouse of verses.
Is there a Conference/Item for discussion about computer viruses/worms/trojans etc: how to defend against them, detect them and hopefully even remove them?
I'd try jellyware and micros
I tend to lurk in Jellyware and Micros every now and again, but hadn't noticed an item on viruses. I'll have another rummage now.
Ah. Found it in Micros. Thanks Joe!
I've been poking around for the past few days and seeing a lot of very interesting but ever-so-quiet conferences. I've chosen "aaypsi" as the target of my resuscitation efforts. You'll find four new items (so far) on current or recent A2 issues that are of interest to this Washtenaw- raised and UMich-educated urban planning student (meaning, snake-killing is not among the first four). I've tried to make the initial entries fairly objective, and am saving my opinions for responses; if anybody shows interest, I promise to keep up discussion on those items and to enter more. (Though, since I'm in exile right now, I can only comment on issues that are big enough to hit the AANews in some detail, that have been going on for more than a year, or that are described well enough by somebody else for me to understand.)
Nice, Richard. Would you be interested in becoming a fairwitness for the conference? Dan isn't around much anymore and I'm not inspired to keep discussion going or even come up with items.
Where can I read about the duties of an fw?
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What else do you put on your pizza, and then pass it off as anchovies?
Cheese and paparazzi.
Anchovies were originally put on pizza because salt was taxed and anchovies were not.
When and where was that?
mecca
France taxed salt for many years, I don't know about Italy. England taxed salt in India and forced people to import it instead of making their own.
What about the anchovies? When and where?
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I don't know any more details on the anchovies.
So #17 is baseless? I'm glad, as anchovies are the one thing I don't want on pizzas. (Besides, I didn't think pizzas were much favored in India.)
I think I remember the time I had an anchovy and pepperoni pizza... wasn't too bad.
So does no one on grex travel anymore? The travel conference seems a bit quiet these days.
Rane, #24 is kind of rude - just because Sindi doesn't have the data at her fingertips doesn't mean what she said is "baseless". Nor does its truth or falsehood in any way affect whether or not you are forced to eat anchovies on your pizza.
I love anchovies on pizza. :)
*senses a movement toward an anchovie cf.*
I like anchovies on my caesar salad and in my puttanesca sauce. Not bad on pizza either, but I don't often go that route.
Salt was taxed in India, hence the significance of the famed "salt march". Anchovies are not eaten in India. At least I've never seen them there, and never on pizzas. Pineapple on pizza is very popular though. But not as popular as paneer and chicken tikka on pizzas. Just a little Indian flavor there. I've never had anchovies. The one time I had the oppurtunity, when I was 15, I was disgusted at the face that I had to eat the heads. Did not try it. However, now, I would definitely try it, if given the oppurtunity. Want to discuss international cuisine? want to discuss international fashion? How about international anything? Join the international conference. (It's been a bit slow, but I hope to resurrect it soon) j intl
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In the Boston area Greek pizzas include eggplant.
Tired of the Agora stigma?
Join the conference called "Enigma"!
Your views will meet with great respect,
No ill will will you detect.
Enigma is a friendly place,
The friendliest in Cyberspace.
Inhabitants are wise and kind,
Cultivating peace of mind.
Heed if you will this clarion call,
As I encourage one and all
To join in festive celebration
Of our great Enigma Nation!
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I have an interesting book about various food ingredients, called "Much Depends on Dinner" by Margaret Visser. It goes into the history and mythology and much more of several ingredients of a "simple" dinner -- chicken, rice, corn, salt, olive oil, butter ,lemon, lettuce ,and ice cream. I haven't gotten to the salt chapter yet (just got it yesterday) but it's fascinating reading (lemons have a very interesting history, it turns out).
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resp:28 really? My mother-in-law and I had a laugh about anchovy pizzas... I think we decided we'd order one sometime. My memory of the pepperoni/anchovy pizza was that it wasn't too bad. resp:29 yeah, on caesar salad, anchovies are good, too.
yeah they're good in salads & sauces, i don't get them on pizza though, they interfere withj the fatty goodness of the italian sausage and pepperoni that i like.
OH yeah. anchovies interfere with *everything* else on a pizza. They pretty much have to be the only item.
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I stand corrected.
resp:34 *that* was cool!
I used to go to a LAN party where they would get what they called the salt pizza: anchovies and green olives. Worked pretty well together, but god damn did it give me gas. :)
Twila - I liked "Much Depends Upon Dinner" too. For further reading, I recommand Michael Polland's book, "The Botany of Desire", which discusses all aspects of the history of three plants: Apples, Potatos, Tulips and Marajuana.
is marijuana the forth, or have you just been using to much?
I'm currently reading "The Sins of Food", I believe it's called. A friend loaned it to me.
(The reviews I've read did not mention tulips in _The Botany of Desire_.)
As it happens, the only non-medicinal drug I've ever used in my life is alcohol, and I've never used enough of that at a time to get drunk. However, I must have been using "to" much of something, as I also misremembered the author's name - it's Michael Pollan. I just went and pulled the book off the shelf, and no, I did not hallucinate the section about tulips. It's really there, reviewers be danged. Personally, I consider this one of the best books written about a very important and badly neglected topic, that collision of human culture and nature that we call agriculture. The subject of where tomorrow's dinner will come from is oddly one that people seem to try to avoid thinking about.
re46: "is marijuana the forth" i wouldn't accuse him of being high or stupid, if i were you, stink-o. lol
The guy says it's the history of three plants, and then lists four. He can expect to get a bit of hassle for that.
My book is "In the Devil's Garden", and it's pretty fascinating.
re51: "forth"
I'll recommend _The Botany of Desire_ too. The apple section has an interesting account of what "Johnny Appleseed" (a real person) actually did. Rather different from the Disney version.
did it involves a stained and greasy trenchcoat?
The 19th century equivalent, roughly speaking. Seems that Mr. Appleseed was in the business of introducing booze (in the form of hard cider) to the American frontier.
I've also read that he was trying to claim lots and lots of land under the homestead laws, which required the land to be "cultivated". He could plant some apple trees, to "cultivate" the land, and then only visit them occasionally, because they didn't need much (any, really) care.
Re #56: I like that version much better than the Disney version. But then, I'm a hard cider fan. ;>
Johnny Appleseed in real life was one John Chapman, born on September 26,1774 near Leominster, Massachusetts. When the rich and fertile lands lying south of the Great Lakes and west of the Ohio river were opened for settlement in the early 1800's, John Chapman was among the very first to explore the new territory. This was the Northwest Territory from which the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois were later formed. For nearly half a century Johnny Appleseed roamed his territory. When settlers arrived, they found John Chapman's young apple trees ready for sale. He did all of the work himself, living alone for weeks at a time with only the Indians and wild animals for companionship. He never carried a gun or weapon of any kind. He was a deeply religious man who lived by the Golden Rule and had no fear of man or beast. Indians accepted him as a friend, and he is reputed to have talked at times to the wild animals who watched him as he worked in his nurseries. As he ate no meat, he carried a stewpot or kettle with him. In this he could gather nuts or berries in season, carry water, get milk from a settler's cow, boil potatoes, or drop a handful of coarse-ground meal into the boiling water to make an unpalatable but nourishing meal. He has been pictured wearing such a pot on his head, but more likely he kept it tied to his pack rather than let it bounce on his head. At first, he went back to the cider presses in western Pennsylvania where he selected good seeds from the discarded apple pressings. He washed the seeds carefully and packed them in bags for planting the following spring. In later years, as cider presses were located in the new territory, he gathered his seeds closer to home. There is no way to estimate how many millions of seeds he planted in the hundreds of nurseries he created in the territory lying south of the Great Lakes and between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This was his service to mankind. He had been living near Fort Wayne, Indiana, when word came one March day that cattle had broken through the brush fence around one of his nurseries some twenty miles away. Although it was a raw spring day, he set forth immediately to repair the damage. On his return trip he was stricken with a disease known as the winter plague. He found shelter with friendly settlers but failed to survive the attack. He died on March 18, 1845 It has been estimated he owned 1200 acres of orchards at the time of his death.
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Living along with just Indians sounds like living alone with just a houseful of servants. Odd attitude.
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Re #61: I don't understand? The Indians weren't servants. It would have been like many people today that have gone to live with various insular tribes around the world today, for one reason or another.
I wonder if he was a modern Druid (the Druids were said to use apples in the wir worship, and the Celtic Church used cider as its communion drink, according to the book I've been reading "In the Devil's Garden".
If you are with people of 'inferior' social rank, some people consider themselves to be all alone. Savages don't rank as people any more than wild animals do.
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Re #65: I'm surprised that you think that way. It would never have occurred to me. What are "savages"? Do you mean peoples that don't have the wealth and education that we have? Your ancestors lived like that, and lived family lives, and laughed, and bred (or you wouldn't be here). So, there are people that have live rougher existences than you and I. I think, however, that referring to any such peoples as "savages" is only an exhibition of ignorance.
re #67: she could have been clearer, but try reading 65 again without interpreting the sentiments as Sindi's but as Sindi's guess at the likely sentiments of those who romanticized Johnny Appleseed as having lived "alone" in the wilderness.
(He probably did live alone, with wild animals visiting more frequently than Indians.)
Re #68: yes, #65 could be interpreted that way, but #61 seemed to indicate a more personal opinion on the matter.
Again, I think #61 is a bit muddled, but as I read it (my interpretation
influenced by my knowledge of Sindi) I don't read it as a comparison
between Indians and servants, but between two different (false in her
opinion) kinds of living alone.
Try:
"Living alone" with "just" Indians sounds like "living alone" with
"just" a houseful of servants.
Anyway, from what I know of Sindi I'm assuming that's what she meant,
but I agree that both comments read very oddly and are quite prone to
disagreeable misinterpretations.
Thank you Mike. I have been reading too many 19th centural English novels. And things like Father Brown and Agatha Christie, where 'nobody' was there (just the servants). There was a long period when many European were of the view that if you were an African, you were not really human. I don't know if they regarded the North American natives the same way.
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I guess Jim an I are either retired or insane. Between us we have planted dozens of trees. Not apples, but a pear, three plums, six hazel-filbert hybrids, four pawpaws, two persimmons, three apricots. And bushes.
Are we taking a poll? I guess I vote for "insane". ;)
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Jim plants things thoroughly, which means digging down through any rocky areas so the roots will be able to grow downwards, and three feet in diameter holes, and adding compost. It can be difficult to dig in dry clay. We have a friend who has planted hundreds of pawpaw trees but some of them were planted in trenches as a hedge.
For some years we bought (small) live conifers to use as Xmas trees, and then planted them outside. We now have a jungle around the house of too-close and quite large trees. (When we figured we had run out of room we got an artifical tree.)
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No - only our sewer line. However I do not think the trees we planted are near those, because of the locations of the gas and water meters in the house.
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Salt was probably taxed right through the British Empire, not just in India. The reason why the taxation of salt during the British Raj is familiar is because Gandhi marched to the sea to collect salt in violation of the taxation rules, as part of his campaign of civil disobedience.
Maybe this item should be renamed "Historical Item."
NO, I OBJECT
does someone
One cf of great importance to grex (not to say the others are less important) is coop. This is the place to discuss grex policy and in general learn and teach about grex and its governance. Want to know where grex is headed? coop is the place to go. Right now is an interesting time of the year. We are in the midst of an election and you can find the candidates statements and ensuing discussion in coop. Also, discussions on getting a remote board member (if elected) able to participate in board meetings are pretty hot. Have suggestions on increading user participation in the grex community? Are there things you feel need to be changed about grex? Do you think grex is doing just fine the way it's going, come discuss them in coop. Even if you're not interested in actively participating, coop is a good cf to observe and learn how you can better serve grex. If you're on telnet or ssh, type "j coop" at the next prompt.
If you're interested in parenting, please drop by the parenting conference. (j parent or j kids) I'm making an effort to revive the conference with some current discussions. If you want to talk about something related to kids, please, please, please enter an item in parenting!
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you join the Enigma conference! It's a jungle in there!! KEEP OUT!!!
You *have* been warned!
j enigma
seems rather puzzling
No, that's puzzle.
j puzzle
Guaranteed to get people to join the enigma conference. Therefore, henceforth I shall avoid enigma like the plague.
Hmm. Enigming...
... or is it just Puzzlatic?
You have several choices: