Things that are not all they're cracked up to be

[ahinton]

So many broths, soups and stocks cannot be made without the ‘Holy Trinity’ of onion carrot and celery. Some believe it’s the cornerstone of civilisation. Beef broth? Not sure.

That's very true and it reminds me of a story that I heard years ago from a friend of the American composer Andrew Violette, a pupil of Roger Sessions. Apparently, once near the close of each every academic year, Sessions would take his students out for dinner. As Sessions always had a reputation for being dull and academic, it was with the grave misgivings of the assembled students when, on one such occasion, he got up to give a speech and they all feared that it would be as boring as it gets. After a pause, he began "garlic is the beginning of civilisation - discuss"...

[Nick Armstrong]

Apple products (in my experience).

Yes I've never seen the attraction of apple sauce, apple purée, stewed apples... and not a great apple pie fan either. Like cherries, apples have to be fresh!


Written on my MacBook Pro

[ahinton]

Brahms’ two piano concertos.

Depends who's doing the cracking, surely?...

[Nick Armstrong]

My mother made soup of various kinds for years, and she never used celery.

Leeks, otoh, were always used, best dug from the ground just after the frost had got at them.

Much more sensible! Leeks are much more than they're often cracked up to be imo

[french frank]

Yes I've never seen the attraction of apple sauce, apple purée, stewed apples... and not a great apple pie fan either. Like cherries, apples have to be fresh!


Written on my MacBook Pro

Fresh apple juice is the best non alcoholic alternative, I'd say ...

[ahinton]

Yes, there's a myth I'd like to shatter

On what ground/s? I'd like it cut altogether, actually. He gives double glazing a far worse name than some of its more unscrupulous salespeople.

A well known and widely respected pianist once wrote a piano piece (although specifically NOT for public circulation, let alone performance) to which he gave the title Minimal Liszt (and the subtitle Étude de méditation transcendentale); as a foreword thereto, he wrote

TO THOSE WHO DO NOT SEE THIS AS AN HOMAGE TO LISZT
I RAISE MY GLASS;
HOWEVER[,] THOSE WHO SEE IT AS AN HOMAGE TO GLASS
GO STRAIGHT TO THE BOTTOM OF MY LISZT.

[Richard Barrett]

Children.
1) They smell. Parents often seem unaware of this. I think they're inured to it.
2) Headlice
3) The demeaning task of picking up their litter and not all parents bother to clear up disgusting food remnants
4) Public transport stained with vomit
5) They bite, chase, intimidate, kill, maim and infect people and other animals (oh yes they do)
6) You have to feed them.
7) Frequent hassle around what to do with them when you go out, on holiday, to work etc
8) Diseases, Doctor's bills, insurance costs
9) Loud crying or (worse) high-pitched yelping
10) They destroy things

I suppose you were born already middle-aged, Alain?

[vinteuil]

Obvious, but...

Maybe...

Life.

What's it all about, then?

I've never got the hang of it. A bit like Monopoly, if you ask me.

But then again, you probably won't.

Life's like that...

"Vivre? les serviteurs feront cela pour nous... "

'Axël' - [Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam ]

[zola]

British Airways

BBC4 TV

[vinteuil]

. nutribullets

. spiralizers

. Romanticism

. cocktails

. the French Revolution

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perfect pitch

[vinteuil]

.

A = 440

[Serial_Apologist]

Supermarket eggs.....sorry...

Several that I saw in St Sprees this morning were cracked up to what they shouldn't have been.

[Roslynmuse]

Herbal teas.

[Pulcinella]

The books on the Man Booker Prize shortlist (usually!).