MidLaw and Divers Items
I have learned that you can buy freshly prepared collards, by the pint and by the quart, at the drive-through window at Stamey’s in Greensboro.
Probably, this is some pandemic thing. But I interpret it as a new moment in Southern culture and foodways. Collards to go.
Drive in. “That’ll be $6.07 at the window.” Go.
I got a quart, a fork (plastic), a knife (same), and a napkin.
Down home in the Old North State.
The Mediterranean Sea is a network. It connects the peoples who live around it.
Those peoples are locked in a millennia-long competition to determine who knows the best way to cook a chicken.
Evaluating outcomes requires sampling and deliberating over an extended period, frequently revisiting initial impressions, and tracking the evolution of taste.
Nothing here disparages chickens cooked in other places.
Long ago in Southeast Asia, I learned that, while there are cultural differences respecting beef, pork, dogs, and bats, everybody eats chicken.
Except vegetarians.
I blame cable TV.
It has sucked the meaning almost completely out of these words:
It’s unbelievable.
Play at Elon. Playwright a Westtown graduate. Admission free. Attendance virtual. Streaming olfactory?
Pheromone: An Awkward Olfactory Inquiry
Playwright: Rachel Graf Evans
Director: Professor Kevin Hoffmann
October 1-6, 2020
Roberts Studio Theatre
Somewhere in a dilapidated warehouse in Atlanta, a new kind of party is just getting started. Wear a t-shirt for three days, put it in a Ziploc bag, bring it to the party, fall in love. What matters more in a successful relationship: biology or commitment? An awkward olfactory inquiry into the nature of attraction, betrayal, and the quirky characters we meet in our quest to find true love.
You’d do well to get a ticket.
In crisis, recur to fundamental principles.
Fundamental principles arise from experience. Experience from consciousness. Language shapes consciousness. Language matters.
“Hummus’ is the abbreviation of “hummus bi tahini.” Hummus is the original word for chickpeas and tahini is for ground sesame seeds. Hummus begins here. Then salt, and lemon juice to dance. Oil, garlic, cumin, and pepper to dress.
Before the crisis, some were suggesting substituting white beans instead of chickpeas and eliminating tahini. They called that hummus. Others, mashed beets. It was hummus, except without the chickpeas and without the tahini.
What? George Washington’s hatchet.
Is crisis any wonder?
Recur to fundamental principles. Chickpeas mashed, sesame seeds ground, lemon juiced. Things will come right.
Control counters crisis
Routines are control.
Centuries — millennia — have chiseled the steps to hummus. There are routines.
The Cahiers du Hoummous sees the steps, the routines, records them.
Each step in its turn, unto itself. Then the next.
Non-essentials fall away.
Chickpeas, sesame seeds. Lemons.
Choices are made. Routines settle.
Routines. Handles. The handles strengthen. Hummus and beyond.
The gateway is MidLaw Mind. In a time of crisis.
In times of crisis, it is well to stand on bedrock. Recur to fundamental principles.
The verdict of the centuries is that hummus is chickpeas (mashed), sesame seeds (ground), garlic (peeled), and lemon (juiced).
Followers of MidLaw will learn hereafter that olive oil, salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper play important supporting roles.
But the essence of hummus is chickpeas, tahini (ground sesame seeds), garlic, and lemon. That is bedrock.
A trend of recent times is to introduce other elements into the mix. Worse, there are those who substitute and eliminate essentials. This is done in the name of creativity. They call the result “hummus.” Partly, this is an offense to the language. Often, it is an offense to the culture. It serves ill in a crisis.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with throwing anything you like into a food processor, then grinding and eating it. (Well, let’s limit this to vegetables for discussion’s sake.) But, there are issues of language, etymology, and culture here – which will be considered in later cahiers. Get your own word, though, for what you do, because without chickpeas and tahini, it is not hummus. The earth will shift beneath your feet.
And there is the issue of beets – grinding up beets, eating them, and associating that with hummus. Does this require discussion?
In a crisis, trust the learning of the centuries.
I have a bucket with water and bleach.
I dip my rag.
I wipe the handrail.
The virus writhes. It decomposes and dies.
I approach the doorknob.
The Annual Herb Sale of the North Carolina Unit of the American Herb Society set to occur on April 16, 2020, at the Greensboro Farmers Market is canceled. It will be re-scheduled on the Other Side.
Consult the North Carolina Unit’s website for developments.
MidLaw cannot be responsible for updates. It just can’t.
