Larry’s Pretty Good Journal

It was a good seder—smaller than some years, but good.

However, comma, one guest brought a bottle of Manischewitz wine as a joke gift. When we opened it for the curious, we let Eaglet sample it—something we allow during rituals, mainly seders and shabbat, that include alcohol. Wine has always been yuck for them, but this? This they liked. A lot.

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

(For those who haven’t met it, Manischewitz is a sweet, strong low-grade American wine barely better than rotgut. Because for a long time it was the only readily available wine that’s kosher for Passover, many families traditionally serve it at seders—or rather served, to our great fortune.)

---L.

Subject quote from For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield.

Essential life experience: having a twelve-year-old rant at you for 10 minutes about how the existence of sweet potatoes offends them.

---L.

Subject quote from Let’s Go Crazy, Prince and the Revolution.

Our second car has reached the vehicle life-stage of junker. It’s 28 years old, sun-weathered with a paint job best described as “former,” but even if sold for (increasingly costly) parts it’s worth way less than the cost of repainting it. The roof is rusting, the upholstery is starting to fray, and a couple door latches don’t work from one side or another. Eaglet hates riding in it, partly from embarrassment (see: is twelve) but in all fairness, the never very strong a/c is now so anemic it doesn’t reach the back seat.

So, yeah, old, and honestly not a great car: a Geo Tracker, from the last year Geos were sold before its assets were split between Chevrolet and Suzuki, the companies that collaborated on the models. A cheap ride, from a line with a deserved reputation of being cheaply made. I describe it as a put-put class SUV. Locks and windows are fully manual, as is the conversion between 2- and 4-wheel drive (you have to get out to lock/unlock the wheels). When asked to maintain highway speed on an uphill with the a/c on, it can manage two out of three at best—but it got us through many roads where high clearance 4WH is a hard requirement. We did a lot of back-of-beyond camping out of that car.

Though not these days: it’s nowhere near large enough for three people + gear, and we don’t fully trust it for long distances anyway. Heck, the back row isn’t really big enough for a baby seat, thus the Subaru Forester bought the week before Eaglet’s arrival.

But the thing is, that Tracker still runs. The body is wearing out, but the driving is fine, around the city. We keep expecting it to break down any week now, but it hasn’t, nor has it ever needed repairs more serious than an oil or refrigerant leak. Certainly, our finances would appreciate it holding on for another couple years—and frankly, it just might. For a cheap-in-many-senses thing, it has done remarkably well.

Some sort of metaphoric point could be made from this, but I’ll let others codify exactly what.

---L.

Subject quote from Kiss, Prince and the Revolution.

Obligatory disclaimer: I’m not Jewish.

janni and Eaglet are, however, and our household observes Passover—and because Eaglet loves matzah brei, I’ve learned how to make it, or at least an approximation of the version Janni’s family made. Here’s how I do it.* It scales easily—each square of matzah is a serving. Depending on the size of your frying pan, making more than 4 servings at a time might not be feasible. This is scaled for two servings:

Take 2 squares of matzah and crumble into a bowl until the biggest pieces are around 1in/2cm in size. Cover with water and let sit while you get everything else ready, approximately 1-2 minutes.

Get out 2 eggs (same number as matzahs) and butter. Place a pat of butter in a frying pan, just large enough to lightly coat the bottom when melted.

When the matzah has soaked enough to be soft with just a hint of crunch in the larger pieces, drain the water. Start warming the pan on medium-high heat (same as if scrambling eggs). Mix the eggs into the matzah, then let sit until the butter has melted.

Pour the mix into the pan. Scramble as you do eggs. As soon as the egg portions are cooked (no longer gleaming as if wet), plate, salt to taste, and serve. Sour cream or applesauce are traditional toppings, but we often eat it just salted.

Feel free to teach me alternate versions!


* Present tense intentional, despite Passover being over, as we have a box and a half left over to use up.

---L.

Subject quote from MacArthur Park, Richard Harris.

I just tapped the page of a paper book to turn it

😭😭😭

Two of the kids in Eaglet’s lion dance troupe are Chinese-Mexican in heritage, raised as Chinese-American but still keeping in touch with their fusion culture—which still flourishes in Mexico. As an example, they also do folklórico dancing. This weekend is the older one’s quinceañera, and the troupe has been hired as performers—presumably one of many.

This should be interesting. And, at a guess, loud.

---L.

Subject quote from And We Danced, The Hooters.

I grew up without video games. Not computer games, which I played on mainframes and personal computers, and even programmed a couple on my ZX81. I especially liked Rogue and Colossal Cave, and eventually Nethack once I got a PC. But I never had a console. A couple friends had Ataris or Colecovisions, and a couple more had single-game handhelds, all of which I got to play on a couple times, but that was it.

The third generation NES, Master System, and the like didn’t come out till I was at university. Game Boy and Game Gear, grad school. PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube passed me by as a young professional scraping by. I sometimes played on my PC, mostly puzzle games or text adventures, and later my phone, a bit more.

Until Eaglet.

They started young, on a kiddy tablet—first lots of children’s games, then through those on to Roblox and Minecraft. And I followed—on my phone, then on a tablet, playing together and separately. I’ve not followed them onto a gaming PC,* but when they got a Switch, a couple years ago, I’ve been able to borrow it sometimes and heartily enjoyed it. Though, okay, only long enough to play through exactly one game, Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

But through that, I’ve gotten into retro gaming, especially old Nintendo games, especially from the Game Boy Advance era.

This was facilitated by Delta being released in the App Store. Great fun, but using a d-pad or especially a thumb-stick on a touch-screen is … sub optimal. So two weeks ago, I bought myself a cheap handheld, the PowKiddy RPG30. Handles GBA games beautifully, as well as PS1, plus many N64.

I’ve almost finished the main story of Pokémon LeafGreen—the colorized version of the first game, Pokémon Blue. And I’m looking forward to playing through the rest of the Pokémon main-line games, in order. Maybe not both of the paired games, nor both an original and a remake, but one from each iteration.

So yeah, a new hobby.


* Speaking of which, they just purchased and installed its first major upgrade, a better GPU. Used, but still quite usable.

---L.

Subject quote from The Shame of Life, Butthole Surfers.

During February’s round of Covid, I didn’t shave—no surprise, while recovering. But I haven’t shaved since, or not a full shave—I always scrape off the patchy hairs from my cheeks, because otherwise the result is … unfortunate would be the kindest description. But I now have a rather full goatee, with more salt than pepper on the chin and more pepper above the lips.

If I’ve counted correctly, this is my sixth attempt to grow a beard. All previous rounds, I never got past the itchy stage. In conversations through the years, other beard-growers have reported that it generally takes them a week or two for the bristles to get long enough to stop itching, but even the time I stuck it out for almost two months, it still rilly, rilly bugged me. Distracting and uncomfortable. But not this time—for whatever reason, it’s just felt comfortable, even at the start. Not complaining, but what gives? Eh, whatevs.

Regardless, the bristles are now long enough, I need to start trimming more. Decide what length / shape I want. IOW in my mid-50s, I need to learn the manly skill of beard cultivation.

Assuming, that is, I’m willing to look more like a youngish Boomer instead of an older Gen-Xer—for a graying goatee is pos def more a Boomer style. I am … ambivalent about this. Showing my age, that’s fine—but I’ve spent a lifetime in a cohort that’s been dismissed and minimized by many of our near elders to be entirely comfortable with being identified as one. I’ve always felt more kinship with people five years younger than me than five years older.

It’s a trade-off of discomforts. Is the dissonance worth the ease of not having to shave my chin? Maybe.

Or maybe I just need to get over generational sniping.

---L.

Subject quote from The Task, Book V, William Cowper.

So last night, our local Chinese Cultural Center screened four short films by Asian-American makers, including the premiere of Young Lions, a documentary about Eaglet’s youth Lion Dance troupe — focused on different aspects of carrying on the tradition, with the hook of the challenges of reconstituting after a two-year pause for Covid-19. The interviews are with the leaders and teachers, but Eaglet appears in training and performing scenes, ETA: and in the credits.

Here’s the poster, which includes Eaglet’s partner as the boy in the lower right:



More information. No information yet when/how it will be available for a wider viewership.

It was filmed two years ago, so Eaglet looks so young to me now, but it was still way cool to watch.

---L.

Subject quote from We Are Young, Fun. feat. Janelle Monáe.

The paxlovid aftertaste is as yucky as everyone says.

So, yeah, I’m down for round two of Covid. Fortunately much milder than the first time, which had me flat on my back for two weeks. But still.

Eaglet is on day 5 since symptoms began, and has felt fine since yesterday. Well, Tuesday, really. I started feeling it Monday evening, but didn’t test positive till yesterday morning. janni feels like she’s fighting something off, but still testing negative.

Both other kids from Eaglet’s playdate last Thursday have it, btw, and are also still home. Eaglet is gaming with them now.

And Imma rest in this here bed for a while.

—L.