Sneezy - but who isn't?
Ordinarily, I make use of cotton handkerchiefs that I wash and press myself, but I've had to resort to giant boxes of Kleenex these past few days. Mercifully, my nasal passages are clear at night, and my sleep is undisturbed, but the hacking and sneezing are well underway by the time I'm pouring the last cups of boiling water into the Chemex. The only nuisance about tissues is the need to carry around a wastebasket... Because I had canceled last week's French lesson on account of my cold, I was disinclined to do so again, even though the waterworks were running even more amok. They say that nothing improves one's French accent like a cold, but accent isn't really my problem; it's the one thing that I really got out of those private lessons when I was twelve. ("La rose est une fleur," repeated ad infinitum.) My problem, increasingly it seems, is a dimness about gender. You can slur "le" and "la," of course, but the agreement of adjectives will be there to betray you. I have added one little brick to my grasp of French: photographie means "photograph" as well as "photography," and photographe means "photographer." Got it? Why does Turkish seem simpler?... One of the bloggers on my roster is unhappy about her husband's terrible working hours, and since he has what appears to be a dead-end job, there's the question what to do about a change. Remembering an observation made by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point, I reflected that the Blogosphere ought to become the greatest job bazaar ever, because you are far more likely to get a job through someone you know slightly than through a good friend. I suppose that's what craigslist is for, but the chain of linked Web logs introduces a very useful personal note. Of course, everybody would have to have a blog, but that already seems inevitable. Even Édouard - but I anticipate.
Comments
Gender is the sticking point for me in French. That's where I usually first give myself away. I know you've posted on this fairly recently, but we Anglophones just are not wired to store gender for inanimate objects. In the same vein, I have a Chinese friend who speaks English with barely any accent and writes flawlessly, but who, when tired, will slip up and confound genders of people (calling a woman "him," for example).
You probably know this, but the distinction in meaning for photographie is provided by the article -- singular definite article (i.e., la) for "photography", singular or plural indefinite article (une, des) for "photograph[s]".
Languages are tough!
Chemex - now that's old school! I stick to a manual Melitta myself. Not sure why I have never broken down and gotten an auto drip maker, as they really do a pretty good job these days (as long as you remember to turn it off when it's done brewing, so that the darn hot plate doesn't burn the coffee; and use enough grounds so that most Americans start to suspect that you're drinking espresso).
Posted by: Max | February 23, 2005 10:55 AM
Chemex still makes the best damn cup of coffee..... I blend chicory from New Orleans, Espresso, and Nicaraguan.....strong...........
Posted by: PPOQ | February 23, 2005 11:27 AM
Max - Thanks for making my brick a little more useful. I hadn't quite reached the useful disciminations that you point out.
My choice of Chemex over Melitta is very simple: no plastics in the kitchen! I make a very few exceptions - for spatulas; I can't think of anything else. I learned long ago that contact with petrochemicals throws off many complex flavors, and plastics can never be completely cleaned. So: no plastic mixing bowls, no rubber spoons, no plastic plates or mugs - nothing.
Fresh-ground Kona beans and Chemex filters make the best coffee going - although we can expect Granpépé to weigh in on this; with his Central American heritage, he's accustomed to burnt tar infused with vegetables (chicory). Not that I mean to provoke him.
Posted by: R J Keefe | February 23, 2005 11:29 AM
You know, you're right about plastics in general, though I've never discerned any plastic taste in my coffee, and I'm extremely sensitive to any off tastes in coffee. I do sometimes take my food to work in plastic containers and occasionally find the tupperwarekeit intolerable.
Kona is damn good stuff, but I find it too expensive. I used to buy it occasionally back in the 80s when I worked at the late, great Coffee Connection (local Boston coffee chain, later bought out by Starbucks, where I received my coffee education). Sumatra is excellent too -- it's got that dark earthiness that Kona has from growing in volcanic soil. I don't like darkissimo roasts for drip coffee, though I do for espresso.
Posted by: Max | February 23, 2005 11:55 AM
Granpepe will admit that his coffee drinking began while very young (8), typical in Nicaragua, and that I always loved the stronger, bitterer blends. I also passed the Webmaster's 'is it coffee or decaf' test in under 2 seconds when he claimed I was a poseur about coffee.
Posted by: PPOQ | February 23, 2005 12:40 PM
I have nothing to add to the coffee discussion, but do have a sneezes suggestion, one I picked up from a Robertson Davies novel: (I think it was the one where the evil mother left a complicated will involving the production of male offspring) tear up old cotton sheets for use when the snots are really too much for a hankie. You end up with a lot of very soft 'hankies' that are reusable and don't require pressing, because you only use them when you're really dripping so much you're confined to your own home.
Posted by: Biscuit | February 23, 2005 02:24 PM