PicoBlog

In a recent post, I told a very personal story about my one painful experience with polyamory and how I mistook “love bombing” for actual love in a narcissistic abuse situation. After reading it to my writing teacher Nancy Aronie, Nancy said, “Well, how do you tell the difference?” So I wrote a follow up about what I’ve learned since then about how to distinguish the difference between healthy, well boundaried, actual love and the red flags of narcissistic abuse that we sometimes get fooled by- including “love bombing,” which typically ends painfully.

Broadcast: December 2016 Watched: April 2022 “Are you alright? You’re kind of wet.” “I prefer mild-mannered.” I love that someone goes, “Ooh movies based on comic books are huge, let’s do something about that” and Moffat accidentally writes a romantic comedy about 80s Superman as a male nanny, instead. (Though, to be fair, a big part of Harmony Shoal’s plan – the vaporising New York to spark panic part – is nicked from Watchmen.

My favorite tactic when car buying and the salesman or the manager/closer is futzing with his calculator, tossing up numbers, and trying to take advantage of you is this: say “ does that calculator have a yes and a no button? That’s all i need.” That said my current car is 21 years old. I leased it for a good deal, and bought it for a better one. And retired from the blood sport.

Yes, Audition is a GREAT movie for valentine's day - at least for anyone who is single :-) Though (SPOILER ALERT) the movie does have a happy ending - in a way - and - in a way - does have a successful relationship... it's just that the protagonist can't really believe his luck ;-) (That's all I say, maybe I will do a review of it some day and then I'll explain it in more detail)

You may not recognize Andy Mills’ name, but you likely know his work: He co-created The Daily podcast for The New York Times, where he also produced Rabbit Hole, a fantastic series on the internet, and – quite fatefully! – the war on terror podcast, Caliphate. Shit happened. It was complicated. Andy is no longer at The New York Times.  But he’s struck out on his own. Last year he gave us The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, one of 2023’s best podcasts, and now he’s back with a new podcast, Reflector, which tells “stories about the strange experiences of being human — sparking wonder, unveiling complexity, and igniting curiosity,” which Mills created with longtime producing partner Matthew Boll.

Introduction to Enhanced Housekeeping© This method instructs how to clean without creating dust-borne occupant exposures! And how to clean really really good! SAFELY. And, EFFECTIVELY. Whether the actinos are from skin or soil. THIS method WILL work. There are NO expensive proprietary magic potions! I label and sell NOTHING. You NEVER need to over-pay for something because the label includes the word “Actino”… Based on the Enhanced Housekeeping© techniques that I’ve been recommending for over 18 years!

如果我问你“饺子的英文是什么？”，你肯定会说 Chinese dumplings. 没错。 如果我再问你“包 子英文怎么说？”是不是一下子想不起来了？ 其实很多时候 dumpling 也可以指包子。 一般汉英字典上给的标准答案是：Chinese steamed buns 可是，bun是小圆面包的意思，steamed buns应该只是白面馒头（没有馅儿）啊。 一般意义上所说的那种有馅儿的包 子英文叫Chinese steamed buns stuffed with meat/vegetable filling。的确很啰嗦，但这样说才能解释清楚。 *注：上海话里没有“包 子”这个词，上海人把馒头和包 子统称为“馒头”。有肉馅的叫“肉馒头”，没馅儿的叫白馒头，生煎（北方的水煎包）上海人称为“生煎馒头”。 我们再来近距离看饺子的英文 Chinese dumplings. 其实这个翻译也有问题，因为dumpling的本意只是煮熟或蒸熟的一小团面制成的食品（small balls of boiled or steamed dough），仅从字面意思看也不一定是饺子，也可以指汤圆(sweet dumplings)啊，还可以是粽子啊（rice dumplings）。 *注：南方人说汤圆，北方叫元宵。传说是袁 世 凯要求改的名字，说汤圆听着不吉利，像“蹚袁”，所以北方就改叫元宵。我一向认为这个传说纯属扯淡，因为“元宵”听起来像“袁消”，岂不更不吉利？袁大头如果真要求汤圆改名字，就该直接要求全中国都按照宁波话那样把汤圆这种东西叫做“汤团”——problem solved. 好，我们继续。 很多年前我跟一群意大利人一起工作，他们都是第一次来中国，第一次看见饺子时，他们有人说是 Gnocchi cinesi. Cinesi就是意大利语的Chinese，gnocchi就是意大利的饺子。 他们中的另一拨人说饺子是 Chinese calzone. Calzone是意大利的一种馅饼，是烤的。 我意大利语不行，判断不了这两个意大利语词哪个更准确。不久后我在一个意大利工友家里吃了他老婆做的calzone，惊呼——这不是我们的韭菜盒子吗？ 但如果你查汉英字典的话，韭菜盒子一般翻译成 fried leek dumplings. 这就是我今天要谈的主要问题——好像所有中国的面食都被简单地翻译成了dumpling，什么都是dumpling，前面再加上Chinese就解决问题了？我对这种偷懒的翻译表示遗憾。我认为韭菜盒子也可以翻译成Chinese calzone啊。 在所有中国面食的英文翻译中，我认为只有一个东西翻译得最好，完全没有歧义，那就是馄饨（云吞）——wonton. 对中国稍微有点了解的歪果仁都知道wonton是什么，但这又不算翻译，只是广东话“云吞”的音译。有一次在成都一个意大利朋友问我这玩意儿叫啥，我急中生智说——Sichuan rivioili。ravioli是一种意大利面食，跟我们的饺子非常相似，也有馅儿，也是面皮包起来的，small circular or square cases of dough with savory fillings. 哈，那个罗马小伙儿秒懂，在春熙路连吃了三碗“龙抄手”，赞不绝口——delizioso, squisito, eccellente, fantastico.

If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏 A few weeks ago I bought a tee shirt. I usually wouldn't share such a mundane event with you, but this tee shirt has a story. Its story is so controversial that I debated for a long time before purchasing it. Once I did buy it, I immediately wore it to see what kind of reaction I would get.

In Which I Revisit an Old Favorite Movie Again and It Becomes a New Least Favorite Sometimes I catch myself wondering why we don’t have more TV shows and movies that take place in the world of craft beer. And then I remember what those of immersed in this industry often have to tell ourselves, which is that this scene is so much smaller than it can feel when it’s your career, your hobby, or both.