crowdsourcing

For the Holiday Party, my company is giving out calendars featuring employee submitted photos. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should submit? I'm currently thinking about these 9 or so photos. Any suggestions? Thanks!

cats and other catastrophes

• Wikipedia citationlessly states that the terminal velocity of a cat is 60 mph, not my stated 30. For reference, rain drop can travel as fast as 20 or 30 miles per hour.
• The article I remember reading was undoubtedly this article from the Straight Dope. However, slightly more recent research has indicated that the 'cats do better after 7 [(I said 4)] stories' theory is based on a sampling bias: people don't bring dead cats to the vet.

• Bertha's Mussels is in Fell's Point.
• I couldn't find a flag that matched that hat. The closest is probably Macedonia, followed by Arizona.
• There are five ferries in the Cape May/Lewes ferry fleet.
• Yucca and yuca are very much not the same plant.

Google Voice!

I just got a google voice account, so you can call me without having to go through the bother of knowing my phone number.

more corrections

• Yggdrasil is the world tree from Norse mythology.
• UVA was notable at its founding for being not affiliated with a religious movement. However, a chapel was built on the grounds in 1890. The closest reference I could find was to Noble C. Powell, an Episcopal bishop who preached in Charlottesville for several years in the early part of the last century.

corrections

• As far as I can tell, the Great Red Spot has existed for as long as astronomers have been looking, but its color changes slightly from time to time.
• It was Hilary Clinton, not Bill, who (apocryphally?) overdosed on fondue. 
• The restaurant I was thinking of is called Helmand, not the Khyber Pass.
• The suicide rate in Alaska (and, for that matter, a variety of states that I would group together as 'lonely') have rates of suicide about the same as northern-European countries. However, suicide if often under-reported, or just generally mis-reported, so I wouldn't draw any conclusions about the 'livability' of these regions; it is not without the realm of possibility that a large part of the change could be due to Scandanavians keep better statistics, or that Alaska just had an unlucky couple of years.

How to decide where to eat.

 Per Steve's advice, I have made a flow chart version of the previous post. The biggest hassle is keeping the three lists.

various

• Cisco owns Linksys, not D-Link.
• While the yellow (amber) light wasn't deployed until 1920 for auto traffic, about 50 years after the first traffic light appeared, it was in common usage on the crowded northeast rail lines for at least 20 years before that.
• NavyFCU did indeed have a loss last quarter, somewhat due to a 'stabilization' expense by NCUA, the FDIC equivalent for credit unions.
• Chickens don't require roosters to lay eggs, just to fertilize them.

How to Decide Where to Eat

First, keep three lists. Where you like to eat, where you've been meaning to eat, and where you've eaten recently. Then, based on your mood, pick either a comfort food from the list of favorites or a new place to suit a spirit of adventure. (Switch back and forth between the two lists, if you like.) Then, look at where you've eaten recently. If you are going for an old favorite, go to the one you haven't been to recently. If you are looking for a new place, go to one that fits in your budget. One exception: if you are in the mood for a specific kind of food, go eat that.
Any other advice?

chile verde

With some of my coworkers, I'm entering the DC 101 Chili Cook-Off next month. I signed up to do the green chili, and have made a couple of attempts at a recipe so far.

My first attempt was a fairly faithful adaptation of Elise Bauer's recipe. The only major change was the size of the dice - I cubed the pork into 1cm cubes, which slowed me down a lot. My biggest mistake was failing to properly brown the pork. I broke the 4 pounds into 5 batches, but that was too few. I was crowding the pan and didn't get a good fond. The next time, I planned to cook it hotter and with fewer pounds of pork per batch. This left the first batch bland. At the end, I added a lot of green tobasco sauce to make up for it. We tried lime juice and hickory liquid smoke at the table, but both seemed inappropriate.

My central thesis is that what the ICF wants is not what I would consider a modern chili. At least, not out here. What they want is a southwestern variation on a ragu. So, I looked at some ragu recipes, mostly going off of an Italian-style pork shoulder ragu from Chris Albano. I should also research pozole, which may provide some inspiration. Emeril's Pozole Verde seems interesting.

I used pork sausage instead of boneless shoulder, saving me a lot of time in prep. Lauren and I picked up two pounds yesterday at the Silver Spring Farmer's Market. It was a simple sausage with salt and black pepper. Unable to find tomatillos yesterday, I bought a 15 oz jar of Xochitl (sp?) green salsa, which is mostly roast tomatillos.

This time, I made sure to develop a fond, breaking my 2 pounds of meat into 3 batches. Between batches, I deglazed the pan with water and poured the fond in with the waiting, cooked pork. After the last batch, I threw in some minced jalapenos and shallot to cook for a few minutes, then added some water, chicken broth and tequila to deglaze. Taking a note from AB, I added some corn masa when I added back the meat to the pot. It made the chili more gray, but I think it helped with flavor and body.

It should be noted that what I had, right now, was tasty. I cooked it for half an hour as is, and started some polenta on the boil. Then I added some more chopped jalapenos and a diced habanero, as well as the salsa. Overall, the chili ended up too salty. I added too much salsa (15 oz - probably 5 or 10 would have been enough for two pounds of meat), and the chicken broth was clearly unnecessary. For serving, I topped with chopped fresh cilantro and diced jalapenos.