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Lawsuit seeks $15,000 for rose thorn prick

A Lake Mary man is suing Winn-Dixie Stores and a flower importer for a finger prick caused by rose thorn. Charles Imwalle filed a lawsuit on Monday against Winn-Dixie and Passion Growers LLC and is seeking $15,000 in damages.

Imwalle, 41, claims he suffered pain, disfigurement, medical bills and lost wages after pricking his finger on a thorn from a bouquet of roses he purchased for his wife to celebrate their anniversary. Before he was able to hand the roses to his wife, a thorn pricked his right hand, underneath the joint of his index finger.



Imwalle's lawyer, Paul Thompson, released a statement describing what happened next: "Over the next 24 hours, Mr. Imwalle’s hand began to swell and the pain became so excruciating he could not use it. On presentation to the emergency room at Florida Hospital Altamonte, his hand was 3 times its normal size. He was transported to Florida Hospital Orlando for an infectious disease consult and was ultimately taken to surgery where his hand was lanced and a PICC line placed through which he would receive intravenous antibiotics over the next thirty (30) days.

Mr. Imwalle was unable to work for two months, had lost full use of his hand and has suffered significant scarring and disfigurement. His medical expenses exceeded $45,000.00 and he sustained a job-related economic loss of more than $5,500.00. Both Winn-Dixie and Passion Growers have denied liability for what doctors confirm was an infection caused by bacteria transmitted through the puncture wound caused by the thorn." The lawsuit is based on the premise that the injuries could have been avoided by better wrapping the thorns with a protective wrap, or simply removing the thorns as many florists do.

With news video.

Man lives with remains of dead mother and brother

Lonely Vasile Mogoiu, 85, from the Romanian village of Corbi, dug up his late mother's skeleton from her grave and keeps it at the home he shared with her.

His mother died in 1976 and was given a tradional Christian burial, but after seven years he unearthed her ​​bones and took them home. This way he feels closer to her.



"Mother died at the age of 80 years and two months in 1976, I buried her, and after seven years I dug her out and I brought her home to be closer to me. My mother raised me alone, I was a child out of wedlock, and I loved her a lot.

And my brother, Joe, I brought him home from seven years to death because the baby must stay near his mother."

Granny mugger strikes in South Africa

Police in South Africa are searching for an elderly woman who allegedly persuades young men at a mall to help carry heavy bags from her car, then kidnaps them from the parking lot and robs them. The woman, who works with two male accomplices, targets shoppers standing in bank queues at the Maponya Mall in Soweto, has struck at least twice recently.

"I never suspected anything wicked about the old woman as she looked like a pensioner and had a walking stick," said 18-year-old victim Kabelo Dube. He said he was waiting in line to deposit money at the bank when a young man approached and asked him for help unloading the old woman's bags.



He went with the pair to the car and began to help with the bags, but then felt a gun pressed against his head and was ordered to get in the car. The woman and her two accomplices then drove a short distance from the mall, took his money - 1,200 rand (£105, $172) - and forced him out of the car.

"I went back to the mall and reported the incident to the security guards, who advised me to go to a police station and open a case," he said. "Before I could leave another man came into the security control room to report that he had also been robbed by two men and a granny." A police spokesman said a case had been opened and officers were searching for the suspects.

Transsexual begs court not to be locked up with men

A transsexual who admitted cheating £12,000 from the benefits system pleaded with a court: don’t send me to a man’s jail. Janet Williams failed to declare a string of casual jobs while claiming incapacity benefit.

Oldham magistrates heard that Williams was overpaid a total of £11,898. But the 50-year-old, who represented herself, told the court she was a pre-operative transsexual who had lived as a woman for 31 years.



She said she suffered mental health problems as a result of a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot in the vessels which connect to the lungs – in 2003. She asked the court to impose a community sentence rather than sending her to jail – before asking that, if she was imprisoned, it was with women rather than men.

The case was adjourned for probation reports and is due for sentencing on June 14. Joe Farquhar, chairman of the bench, warned Williams that falsely claiming benefits was ‘always’ a serious crime.

Pig farmer tries to get rid of 'worst dog ever'

Pig farmer Tem Sosa from Downham Market, Norfolk, is giving away her pet border collie, Bob, for free and has made no qualms about the thieving, bad-tempered dog's wonky teeth and bad breath in her frank advert.



‘Evil Bob would love to find the perfect home as I have put up with him for nearly ten years and can’t take much more,’ she wrote on the second-hand sales website Preloved. ‘He is probably the worst dog you will ever meet. He started life as a failed mountain rescue dog – probably peed on the climber and stole their Kendal mint cake.

‘He has caused nothing but trouble here as he doesn’t fit in well with a large group of dogs. He looks older than his years, has wonky teeth, bad breath and a bad attitude. He is terrified of cats, snaps at horses’ heels and nips pigs.



‘He should not be left unsupervised indoors as he steals food off the side, licks the cooker and pees at terrier height so as not to get the blame.’ Mrs Sosa did concede that Bob was not all bad: ‘His few good qualities are he travels quietly in the car and will lie under your desk at work all day,’ she added.

Student pays high price for school traffic cone stunt

A student who climbed an 80ft school spire to plant a traffic cone on top has been hit with a £1300 bill. Chris Matthew, 18, scaled the tower at Robert Gordon's College in the middle of the night as a prank.

He stuck the traffic cone and a flag reading "11" on top, to the delight of pupils who arrived at the Aberdeen secondary the following day. But while they called the prank "legendary", school chiefs branded it "potentially dangerous".



Now Chris has left the school "by mutual consent". And his parents have agreed to pay the £1300 bill to remove the traffic cone. But school friends rallied round with an internet appeal to pay the amount and they've already raised more than £1000.

One pal wrote on the website: "Chris has a sum of £1300 to fork out due to the school's inability/ inexperience to scale the building themselves and take the cone down for free." A spokesman for the school said: "Both parties now consider the matter closed."

Police seek Goldilocks burglar who breaks into homes, eats then has a nap

Essex Police are appealing for help from the public to find a man nickmamed Goldilocks by officers.

Jesse Dobinson, who was last known to be living in South Woodham Ferrers, is wanted in connection with two burglaries at an address in Sevenacres, Wickford between Monday February 28 and Wednesday March 9.



On both occasions beds in the property were slept in and food eaten before items, including electrical goods, were stolen. Police officers would also like to speak to the 19-year-old in connection with an assault at the same address in which his victim was shot in the chest with a BB gun.

Dobinson is described as 5ft 3in tall and of slim build. He has blue eyes and short blond straight hair. He is usually clean shaven and has a pierced left ear and East Anglian accent.

Man charged after Queen’s protection vehicles are clamped

Two police officers had their vehicles wheel clamped as they sat inside carrying out security duties for the Queen's recent visit to Portsmouth. The two unmarked police vehicles were clamped during the royal visit to Gunwharf Quays on Wednesday for lunch aboard a luxury yacht.

Hampshire Constabulary said the clamping had prevented the officers from "conducting their duties". Gareth Andrews, 37, Fareham, has been charged with obstructing police.



Mr Andrews, of Privett Road, is due to appear before South East Hampshire Magistrates' Court on 3 June. The Queen's unannounced visit saw her have lunch on board the super yacht Leander, owned by NCP car park millionaire Sir Donald Gosling.

A police spokesman said: "The officers had not left the vehicles at the time they were clamped." Mr Andrews is also charged with contravening the Private Security Industry Act, by not displaying the appropriate licensing badge.

With news video.

Blind man thrown out of cafe for taking in guide dog

A partially-sighted man was told to leave a Cambridge café because he had his guide dog with him. Andrew Lee, of Princess Court, Coronation Street, Trumpington, had gone into the Tudor Rose Café with his guide dog, Vinnie, and a friend for breakfast. But as soon as he walked in he was told to leave. The 46-year-old said: “I went into the café in Mill Road with a friend last Wednesday. The waitress came up and said you can’t have any dogs in here.”



He asked to speak to the manager, who came out and said he had to go. Mr Lee said: “I said ‘Did you know it is against the law? He has got a legal right to come in.’ He said ‘I don’t care for English law’.” The trio left the café to avoid further confrontation but Mr Lee has been left upset by the incident. He said: “I was really offended. We hadn’t been there before. Normally we go to the Salvation Army but it was closed. We only wanted a cooked breakfast.”

Mr Lee suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye condition which leads to incurable blindness. His problems started when he was a teenager and he was registered blind at 25. He has only had Vinnie for six months. He previously used a white stick but as his condition deteriorated he decided to get a guide dog so he didn’t become isolated.



Head waiter Osman Dogor was in charge of the Tudor Rose on Wednesday and spoke to Mr Lee. He said: “The staff are scared of dogs and I have allergies to animals, especially dogs. I came to him and told him we can’t have dogs in the café because I’m allergic to them. He told me it’s a guide dog, I told him it’s not about the guide dog, I have allergies, it’s not because I’m against animals. I just politely told him to leave, it may be against the law, I don’t know. I didn’t say that I didn’t need his custom because I care about all of my customers. I don’t feel like a rude person. He is welcome to sit near the door and leave the dog outside.”

New fire engines are too noisy to answer 999 calls

Two new fire engines have yet to answer a 999 call after 16 months – because they are "too noisy". The vehicles, known as aerial rescue pumps, were delivered to Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service in January last year. They were supposed to provide cutting-edge technology, combining the attributes of an ordinary fire engine and a high-rise ladder, and were intended to help the service make "considerable savings".

But the engines, for Derby and Chesterfield, have so far proved a costly embarrassment, with fire chiefs claiming they cannot be used because they are so noisy they are felt to be a possible health and safety risk. They would have cost about £1 million to buy but Derbyshire leases the engines for £119,000 a year.



In a statement, the county fire service said: "Since the delivery there has been a need for some considerable training and familiarisation with the vehicles. During this period it was identified that the noise of the vehicles is excessive and may constitute a health issue.

"We must consider the safety, not only of members of the public when we respond, but also of our firefighters. As a result, these appliances will not go 'on the run' until we are satisfied that they are entirely safe."

Noisy cockerel sent death threats

Rooey the cockerel has been sent death threats for waking villagers.



John Newman, 57, who runs the Admiral Hood pub in Mosterton, Dorset, received letters saying the bird Rooey should die because of its noisy crowing that starts at 4 a.m.

One letter warned: "You must silence your crowing rooster or it will come to grief." Another said: "Get its neck rung you cretin. Cockerills belong on farms."



John has been investigated by noise officials but the council took no action. He said: "If you don't like country sounds then don't live in the country."

Soaked Grains Ebook!

A while ago, I submitted my recipe for sourdough dumplings/gyozas/potstickers for Kitchen Stewardship's Soaked Grains ebook. Now that Katie has finished compiling this brilliant document, here's the book for you to look, share, and get inspired! I didn't want to make it a conditional thing, so all are free to access it, though it'd be nice if you followed my blog or check in with some comments once in a while (:

Is Your Flour Wet eBook

Whitcoulls saviours have work cut out in internet age

By Jamie Gray, New Zealand Herald, 5:30 AM Saturday May 28, 201

 

New owners of bookstore chains must keep pace with e-market, experts say. Photo / Greg Bowker

Anne and David Norman will have their work cut out in turning the Whitcoulls and Borders book retailing chains around because of the emerging "e-market" for books, and the intense competition from The Warehouse and Paper Plus, retail experts say.

They say the threat of books that can be bought cheaply off websites such as Amazon.com, and from titles that can be downloaded on to e-book devices such as Amazon's Kindle, and Apple's iPad, will not have been lost on the Normans, who on Thursday bought the chains for an undisclosed sum from the administrators of the failed Australasia retailer, REDgroup.

The chains were sold to Project Mark, a company in the Normans' James Pascoe Group, which operates Pascoes, Farmers, Stewart Dawsons, Goldmark, Stevens, Prouds and Angus & Coote and employs more than 9000 staff in New Zealand and Australia.
Despite the likely hurdles, analysts are upbeat about the prospects of the Normans replicating the success they had with the Farmers retail chain, which they bought from Australia's Foodland Associated for $123 million in 2003.

Full story at New Zealand Herald.

Lost in a book? How reading and doing crosswords can block your ability to hear

By Daily Mail Reporter -  27th May 2011

Becoming engrossed in a good book or a crossword really can block the ability to hear, a study has found.
Scientists demonstrated that when someone focuses their full attention on something, they can become deaf to normally audible sounds.
It happens because visual and hearing senses are trying to share limited brain capacity, they said.

Becoming engrossed in a good book or a crossword really can block the ability to hear, a study has found. It happens because visual and hearing senses are trying to share limited brain capacity, scientists said

But it can have serious consequences, and could be the cause of some road accidents.
The phenomenon is known as ‘inattentional deafness’.

Study leader Professor Nilli Lavie, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, said: ‘Inattentional deafness is a common everyday experience.

 

For example, when engrossed in a good book or even a captivating newspaper article, we may fail to hear the train driver’s announcement and miss our stop.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1391373/How-reading-doing-crosswords-block-ability-hear.html#ixzz1NaX1XK4f

Booksellers behind James Daunt 100%

The Bookseller - 27.05.11 | Charlotte Williams, Lisa Campbell and Graeme Neill

Waterstone's booksellers are relieved over the chain's acquisition by Alexander Mamut, with one saying: "The staff will be behind [new managing director James Daunt] 100%." Fears remained, however, over possible bookshop closures.

One bookseller said news of the deal was "gratefully received". "There is not total calm yet as everyone is still waiting to see what will happen. While Daunt is a confidence-booster about the future of the stores after a worrying few weeks, we still don't know what will happen when he comes in," he said.

Another bookseller at the chain praised Daunt as having "a brilliant range" of bookshops himself. "He is going to face a difficult future but a very interesting one," he added. "He will probably have to close down some of the stores. However, he has spoken of a local offer so hopefully stores will get a greater degree of autonomy [and] we will see a devolution of some power to staff."

Another bookseller was surprised that former m.d. Dominic Myers would leave the chain as a result of the takeover. "James Daunt is a good move although how he'll work out in a much larger business with many more shops, staff and problems to be fixed remains to be seen," he said. "If Mamut invests in the business there is potentially a brighter future ahead."

Publishers stressed the opportunity for Waterstone's to play to its strengths. Picador publisher Paul Baggaley said Waterstone's had the ability to promote backlist, setting it apart from online stores. "I am thrilled by the news. We have a list of books that needs a strong Waterstone's," he said.
Bloomsbury executive director Richard Charkin added: "We hope the new management will continue to recognise the value of breadth of stock and knowledge of local requirements."
Having welcomed the news, Hachette UK chief executive Tim Hely Hutchinson said: "I tend to make a point of not telling booksellers how to do their job, especially since I was at W H Smith and saw at first-hand how little publishers understood about it."

Independent Alma Books m.d. Alessandro Gallenzi said: "What is needed is a strong message that high street bookselling is not dead. James Daunt is the best person to do this. He has credibility." He added that it was Alma Books'  hope that Waterstone's would now stock a greater range of titles. It was felt that Waterstone's had been "a bit understocked".

PFD chief executive Caroline Michel said: "You couldn't have had a smarter move" than appointing Daunt. However, she said Waterstone's needed to do "something similar" to Barnes & Noble in the US with its digital offer. B&N created the Nook reader to sell in stores alongside physical titles. Asked about Daunt's relative lack of digital book experience, Michel said: "He's smart and he will learn. What he needed was leverage and he's got that now."

United Agents director Robert Kirby said: "James Daunt clearly knows how to sell books. The challenge for him is how he can use his successful experience and scale up from half a dozen shops."
Kirby emphasised the importance of staff morale. "What you really want is empowering local managers to get involved in the businesses they run and be the head of a store rather than manager of a collapsing franchise."
A P Watt joint m.d. Caradoc King called Daunt a "visionary and dedicated bookseller who understands the value of drawing people in and encouraging people to buy books even if they're not discounted". He warned that Waterstone's had missed out on digital in a way Barnes & Noble had not and that needed to be tackled.

'The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris'

By DAVID MCCULLOUGH
Reviewed by STACY SCHIFF in the New York Times

David McCullough explores the intellectual legacy that France settled on its 19th-century visitors.

And review in the CSM.

And in the LA Times.

E.E. Cummings Poem Discovered

By Jason Boog on Galley Cat, May 27, 2011 

Biographer James Dempsey wrote a long essay for The Awl this week, recounting how he discovered an E.E. Cummings poem buried in a publisher’s papers.

Check it out: “One day last year, while working on a biography of the publisher Scofield Thayer, I opened a folder of papers related to his magazine The Dial. 

The folder contained undated letters from the poet E.E. Cummings to Thayer, early versions of a couple Cummings’ poems and one poem by Cummings I couldn’t remember ever seeing before. It was called “(tonite” and, until I came across it, it was unknown. Evidence suggests that the poem was sent sometime around 1916, when Cummings was embarking on his career as a poet and artist.”

The poem describes a nighttime snowfall and includes a use of the N-word–a point the biographer contextualizes in the essay. Follow this link to read more poems by Cummings (pictured, via).

The Future of Literary Magazines?

PublishingPerpectives SNOB: Billionaire Backs Rebirth of the Russian Literary Magazine It’s difficult to find a Russian author of note who has not written for SNOB, billionaire Mikhail Prokorov’s luxury lit mag.

Is There a Print Future for Literary Magazines? Can the paper-and-ink people of the literary world continue to support paper-and-ink publications, or will we all eventually switch to screens?

John Banville wins Kafka prize

Irish novelist given honour thought by some to be a Nobel prize augur

• Alison Flood
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 May 2011

'I've been wrestling with Kafka since I was an adolescent' ... John Banville. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Languishing in the Nobel prize for literature odds last year at 66/1, Irish author John Banville may be in with a better shot this time round after landing the Franz Kafka prize, a literary award with an uncanny ability of predicting future Nobel laureates.

The prize is given by the Kafka Society to an international author whose work is "exceptional for its artistic quality", and "addresses readers regardless of their origin, nationality or culture, just like the work of Franz Kafka". It has been won in the past by Elfriede Jelinek and Harold Pinter, both of whom went on to take the Nobel later that year. Banville pronounced himself "proud and pleased and honoured" to be chosen by the prize's jury.


The author, who won the Man Booker for his novel The Sea, said there was "a certain childish pleasure in being singled out to get a prize". "It's foolish to deny it – we try to look down on the Booker but everyone's dying to win it – it's the biggest toy in the shop."

The Kafka prize is also, he said, "one of the ones one really wants to get. It's an old style prize and as an old codger it's perfect for me ... I've been wrestling with Kafka since I was an adolescent. I think he's a great aphorist, a great letter writer, a great diarist, a great short story writer, and a great novelist – I'd put novelist last."


Banville wins $10,000 (£6,000) and a bronze statuette of the Kafka monument in Prague. "It will glare at me from the mantelpiece," he said. "Roddy Doyle congratulated me on winning, and I said I wonder what kind of award Kafka would have given. Roddy said that it wouldn't have stayed still on the mantelpiece."

But animate or inanimate, Banville wasn't so sure the prize would improve his Nobel chances. "The majority of people who've won it didn't win the Nobel," he said, pointing to previous winners who include perennial Nobel contenders Philip Roth and Haruki Murakami. "But hold on, the other phone's ringing, it must be Stockholm."

Mamut and Daunt outline retail vision

The Bookseller - 27.05.11 | Lisa Campbell

Managing Waterstone's will be a challenge in the current market and its new Russian oligarch owner is not going to support the chain with a large chequebook, the chain's new m.d., James Daunt, has said.
If the HMV Group's shareholders approve Alexander Mamut's £53m offer made in the early hours of last Friday, then James Daunt, founder of six London-based shops under the Daunt Books umbrella, will soon become managing director of the book chain he acknowledged had "not been performing very well recently". Like-for-like sales dived by 8.4% in the 17 weeks to 30th April at Waterstone's; over the year like-for-like sales dropped by 3.8%.

While Waterstone's year-end profits are expected to be between £9m and £12m, Daunt was adamant the chain would not be a hobby interest for billionaire Mamut but a passion in which they both held "a firm view of what it is we are trying to achieve".

Mamut said the pair wanted to reposition Waterstone's as a regional and local community-orientated bookseller. Daunt added that the Russian was drawn to it "because he is a book person who shares my belief that if you create really good bookshops, they will be commercially successful".

"This is not Chelsea Football Club, that isn't the idea here. He is doing it because he understands it as I believe I understand it. He will not be keeping it up by writing large cheques each year," he said.
Mamut said: "I am firmly of the view that there will be an enduring demand for physical bookshops, which are cultural centres within local communities, and that there is now an opportunity to renew Waterstone's focus on providing a distinctive, high-quality bookselling service which will underpin that."

Daunt, who is expected to take up his post on 2nd July, said he believes value matters to customers, but added his previous admission of a dislike for three-for-two book offers was a personal preference. He said: "I do not like them. I like cheap books—if it is £9 instead of £10 I will buy it for £9. Quite clearly, value really matters."
The former banker intends to better understand how Waterstone's operates before deciding on a business strategy but underlined that digital was clearly important, along with tailoring Waterstone's stores to match local customers' needs.


Read the full story at The Bookseller.

Santiago Roncagliolo Wins The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2011 has been awarded to Peruvian author Santiago Roncagliolo for his third novel, Red April (Atlantic Books). Roncagliolo beat off competition from a strong shortlist including Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk and former Independent Foreign Fiction Prize winner, Norwegian Per Petterson, to win the Prize.

At 36, Roncagliolo is the youngest-ever author to take the prize.The announcement marks the first time a Peruvian writer has claimed the awardHis American translator, Edith Grossman, shares the £10,000 prize money

Press release

Cassandra Clare cover unveiling at Dymocks, 234 Collins Street, Melbourne

Yesterday saw the much anticipated Australian cover reveal for Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices 2: Clockwork Prince. The cover was unveiled  in Australia, by Cassandra Clare herself, at Dymocks, 234 Collins Street Melbourne.

Yesterday at 9am New York time, the cover was revealed exclusively by Entertainment Weekly in the US after an unveiling at BookExpo America. The cover was published online exclusively by Mundie Moms and can be found here - http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/2011/05/clockwork-prince-cover-reveal.html. 
Clockwork Prince will be publishing this December and is the second in the New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series set in Victorian London.


Cassandra Clare lives in Massachusetts. She has worked as an entertainment journalist for The Hollywood Reporter, has published several short stories and is the author of the popular internet parody The Very Secret Diaries. The Infernal Devices is her second major series. Her first, The Mortal Instruments, has been an international number one bestseller and has been translated into 19 languages.
She has been in New Zealand recently to attend the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival and in Australia to attend the Sydney Writers Festival.

Books get the shove as university students prefer to do research online

Yuko Narushima HIGHER EDUCATION

Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May, 2011

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

THE University of NSW is throwing away thousands of books and scholarly journals as part of a policy that critics say is turning its library into a Starbucks.
Academics say complete journal collections, valuable books and newspapers dating to the 19th century are being thrown out to clear space for cafe-style lounges.
The Herald has obtained an internal document listing thousands of titles due to be pulled from shelves. The 138-page ''weeding'' list includes encyclopaedias, dictionaries, books in foreign languages and texts on psychology, politics and morality.

Advertisement: Story continues below

The policy, which until recently required librarians to remove 50,000 volumes each year, does not allow the last Australian copy of any book to be discarded. But it has opened an ideological row about the function of modern libraries as more research material becomes accessible online.
Already, thousands of books have been dumped in skips in the library basement and staff in various disciplines say they have not been given the opportunity to salvage them.
''This is a scandal. It's outrageous on a whole number of different levels,'' said Peter Slezak, an associate professor in the school of history and philosophy. ''Anyone that has anything to do with books is distressed at this. They are extremely good books.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/books-get-the-shove-as-university-students-prefer-to-do-research-online-20110307-1bl8b.html#ixzz1NaLCNlIK

The Nightly Spot Of 'Nip

Our catnip plant has gotten huge, affording us the opportunity to crush up some fresh 'nip for our Maximum Leader right around drinkie-poo time.

Ahhhhhh. That's good 'nip.

SECRET SHOPS: PART ONE

An on-going project (that I've just decided to start) is about tucked away, fabulous, under-the-radar NYC stores. I'll keep adding to it as i stumble on them...Happy shopping!

LE GRENIER
WHAT: VINTAGE HOMEWARE
WHERE: GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN, 19 Green Point Ave
GETTING THERE: Walk for five mins from the Greenpoint Ave G train
MORE INFO: www.legrenierny.com

It may be the only shop on a border-line derelict street of warehouses and homes but thanks to the discerning eye of its owner - ex fashion producer, Maya Marzolf - it's well worth the hike. Inside it's a mix of industrial pieces and kitsch homeware with a few beautifully preserved pieces of taxidermy, old till registers and rail road tiles thrown in for good measure. There's a large leafy garden behind which hosts community events, and where shoppers can stroll around as they mull over their next purchase. A huge ginger tabby is normally to be found prowling around.

Daughter Goes Traditional

Yes, Daughter Daisy sometimes puts on the red dress and hits the town, but there are also those time when she's Momma's little girl and shows off her traditional side.


I left this photo fairly large because I liked the textures and geometry of the flower. It's like a burst of soft orange. It might be worth a click to see that larger version. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Jamie Oliver!

May 27 has just arrived again. Another day for me to remember the man I consider GOD in my culinary journey. I will forget to blog on the day of my birthday but never on Jamie Oliver's birthday. This is his first birthday that I would greet him after meeting him in person in London last October. For me he is the noblest human being that has ever existed on this planet, without any exaggeration. Being aware about all his campaigns and good deeds in life in helping people by using his ultimate passion and talent about food, makes me admire him more each day. He has already proven himself that he is more than just this fat chef with a drum kit as what Marco Pierre White has brutally said about him couple of years ago. I would vehemently disagree on that. I would just wish he continue to produce good TV shows, delightful cook books and stunning food campaigns. I also wish he will continue to develop good products through his JME online products.

Behind all these countless activities this man is busy about, at the end of the day --he is a good dad and a loving husband. I think he wouldn't ask for more now that he has a gorgeous wife--Jools, 3 lovely daughters and an adorable son. A very good family man. Never became conceited. In this world, good people are blessed because of their good deeds and Jamie is one of those. He is like a pitcher filled with blessings and what he does is to pour it to other people and share it.

So last night I just watched episodes from Jamie's 30-minute meals and Jamie's at Home. While watching, I made a slow roast pork which I marinated in beer and herbs & spices. I wasn't able to finish roasting it so I don't have photo yet. I only took the photo of my roasted tomato soup which smells and tastes really good. This tomato soup will beat all the tomato soup I have tasted. This soup is a lip-smacking one and the sensation of the herbs and spices are vivid but not overpowering the essence of the mashed roasted tomatoes. The after taste is something you will never forget. A recipe i would recommend to everyone.

ROASTED TOMATO CURRY SOUP

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes
• Curry powder
• Paprika
• Turmeric
• Cayenne
• Salt & Pepper
• Milk
• Onions
• Marjoram
• Thyme
• Olive oil
• Butter

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius 10-15 minutes. Wash tomatoes and put it in a baking tray. Drizzle with some olive oil and dash some salt. Reduce the temperature of oven into 150 degrees celsius the put the tomatoes inside the oven. Heat it for 30-40 minutes. When cooked, peel it and mash but leave some chunky texture. Heat casserole with butter then add onions. Saute for few minutes then add the mashed tomatoes. Season with all the herbs and spices and add a bit of milk and water. Simmer until it thickens. Serve with toasted bread.

I dedicate this post to James Trevor Oliver!

Happy Birthday Jamie!! xoxo

big hug,
joanie xxx

new blog site

Hi everyone, I've moved this blog over to wordpress for now as subscribers can get an email version when I post. You can sign up here, it's really easy.

http://theunemployablechef.wordpress.com/