Month: March 2007

o-ring

The o-ring of my Bialetti moka express maker changed shaped last night. It’s no longer usable. For a few month it had been “moribund” but usable. And I *used* it. Average of 3 pots per day.

I have had this Bialetti coffee maker for 2 years, now. I got is second (at least) hand, in New-Zealand, early in the trip.

I am attached to this coffee maker, for a number of reasons. So I will resume looking for a spankin’ new o-ring. Last time I tried, a few months ago, I wasn’t so successful. I almost purchased a whole set in the shop of a purveyor of Italian goods and delicacies in Roslindale. They didn’t have the 4-cup model. Otherwhise I’d have got it just for the ring.

Update:I found o-rings in France, I brought them with me, and I’m happy to report they fit perfectly. I think it’s neat.

I think we’re alone now

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

The song by Tiffany crept in my head last night at dinner, for some reason. Amy and I were having a nice meal at the Bistro. I just can’t see what in the world brought this song into the conversation. Anyway. YouTube has everything, both the 1987 video clip and some 2006 footage of a concert by Tiffany. Enjoy, people.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKVaGYJkokU&w=425&h=350]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4b_dHGMTu8&w=425&h=350]

Say goodbye to your friend

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

They [house plants] were huge and green and glorious, with shiny, healthy, lustrous leaves.

This was because, once a week, Crowley went around the flat with a green plastic plant mister, spraying the leaves, and talking to the plants.

He had heard about talking to plants in the early seventies, on Radio Four, and thought it an excellent idea. Although talking is perhaps the wrong word for what Crowley did.

What he did was put the fear of God into them.

More precisely, the fear of Crowley.

In addition to which, every couple of months Crowley would pick out a plant that was growing too slowly, or succumbing to leaf-wilt or browning, or just didn’t look quite as good as the others, and he would carry it around to all the other plants. “Say goodbye to your friend,” he’d say to them. “He just couldn’t cut it…”

Then he would leave the flat with the offending plant, and return an hour or so later with a large, empty flower pot, which he would leave somewhere conspicuously around the flat.

The plants were the most luxurious, verdant, and beautiful in London. Also the most terrified.

“Good Omens”
By Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman