Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
Wow! 35 years or 420 months or 12,775 days or 319,375 hours … and although that many sound like a really long time to some people … to me … it has all gone by so fast.
Thank you for building a life together.
Roger Freberg
PS. thanks — Karla — for the nice artwork
In South Africa, the humble Chicken Pot Pie has a Cape Dutch-Malay heritage… but variations are everywhere. Most of the recipes are wonderful … although … many eliminate the potato … which I cannot.
South Africans seem to spend great attention in the preparation their foods…. and in particular, their meats … which I admire. In that spirit, in preparation for the Chicken Pot Pie ‘assembly’, I smoked and barbecued my chicken, ham and bacon over some of my favorite woody flavors: Southern hickory, California red oak and Texas mesquite!
Tomorrow, I put it all together for our anniversary.
Stay tuned… Recipe to follow. Jenny Craig, forgive me.
Roger Freberg
“The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness where others would find their destruction: in the labyrinth, in hardness against themselves and others, in experiments.
Their joy is self-conquest.
Difficult tasks are a privilege to them, to play with burdens that crush others, a recreation. They are the most venerable kind of man: that does not preclude their being the most cheerful and the kindliest.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Roy Baumeister made a presentation last month at the American Psychological Association that is a flash of cold reality to some, heresey to others and a welcomed breath of intellectual honesty to others.
Professor Denis Dutton chronicals Dr. Baumeister’s presentation on his site. Here are some of his points that resonated strongly with me:
1) “Almost certainly, it is something biological and genetic. And my guess is that the greater proportion of men at both extremes of the IQ distribution is part of the same pattern. Nature rolls the dice with men more than women. Men go to extremes more than women. It’s true not just with IQ but also with other things, even height: The male distribution of height is flatter, with more really tall and really short men”
“… In an important sense, men really are better AND worse than women.”
2) “Maybe the differences between the genders are more about motivation than ability. This is the difference between can’t and won’t.
3) “The gist of our view was that there are two different ways of being social. In social psychology we tend to emphasize close, intimate relationships, and yes, perhaps women specialize in those and are better at them than men. But one can also look at being social in terms of having larger networks of shallower relationships, and on these, perhaps, men are more social than women.”
4) “As a result, culture mainly arose in the types of social relationships favored by men. Women favor close, intimate relationships. These are if anything more important for the survival of the species. That’s why human women evolved first. We need those close relationships to survive. The large networks of shallower relationships aren’t as vital for survival — but they are good for something else, namely the development of larger social systems and ultimately for culture.”
My take: Dr. Baumeister is thoughtful and heroic in presenting a view that no doubt will be viewed as heretical by those who like to view the world as they wish it to be… and not the way it apparently is.
Roger Freberg
Now does this really look like “DIET” food?
It really really doesn’t look like diet food when I add a large serving of cooked French Beans, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, pearl onions all dowsed with “Susie Q” brand seasoning!
Thanks to “Mama Laura” we are experiencing some of the ‘Meals-on-our-own” from the Jenny Craig Cookbook … wonderful.
We do plan ‘something special’ for our 35th Wedding anniversary on Wednesday… one of Laura’s family favorites of her youth… a Chicken Pot Pie but with a “South African Dutch-Malay” flavor. It’s called ‘Hoender Pastei’ down there… but it looks delicious. Here’s a sneak peek…
It takes a lot to make a Hoender Pastei!
Roger Freberg
Laura’s baking her wonderful Amarula Carrot Cake, too!