The Invisible Library

Once again, the Guardian does the job US news sources should be, but aren’t doing:

What should we do with US classics like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or The Color Purple? “Dig a hole,” Gerald Allen recommends, “and dump them in it.” Don’t laugh. Gerald Allen’s book-burying opinions are not a joke.

Earlier this week, Allen got a call from Washington. He will be meeting with President Bush on Monday. I asked him if this was his first invitation to the White House. “Oh no,” he laughs. “It’s my fifth meeting with Mr Bush.

Bush is interested in Allen’s opinions because Allen is an elected Republican representative in the Alabama state legislature. He is Bush’s base. Last week, Bush’s base introduced a bill that would ban the use of state funds to purchase any books or other materials that “promote homosexuality”. Allen does not want taxpayers’ money to support “positive depictions of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle”. That’s why Tennessee Williams and Alice Walker have got to go.

It’s well worth reading the Guardian article, just for the take down of this half wit’s inane similes, tortured logic and complete lack of scruples or self awareness. He comes off as a political opportunist of the first order, the sort of knee jerk, goose stepping pig fucker who could blithely defend censorship, while claiming he’s actually fighting it, and never ever see the irony, or the tragedy of his actions. Of course, that would require a sensitivity to literary themes and ideas that he and most Republicans never bothered to cultivate, because as we all know, irony and tragedy are totally for fags.

I wrote previously about Representative Gerald “I’m Not a Nazi, Really” Allen’s adventures in bamboozelment here.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has a recipe for Chatham County Artillery Punch that sounds promising. Reading it reminded me that I’ve never posted the recipe for Sangria that Elvira and I have fine-tuned over the years. So here it is:

Sangria

• 1 magnum of red wine (cheap wine works well but not too cheap. A good $8-10 bottle will do. We like Concha y Toro)
• 1 pint bourbon or spiced rum (The Captain does nicely)
• 1 can each, frozen concentrate lemonade and limeade
• mixed fruit, seasonal
• about a quart of cold water
• sugar to taste

Ideally, the fruit should soak overnight in the rum or brandy but if you’re making this last minute, it’s not required and doesn’t diminish the taste.

Mix the lemonade/limeade with water and then add to the wine in a large pot. Pour in the rum or brandy (if you’ve decided not to soak the fruit). As fruit goes, lemons, limes and oranges are practically a necessity. Grapes are nice. Cherries are preferable.

Obviously, you need to refrigerate the brandy and fruit if your soaking them overnight. The whole concoctive should be refrigerated until served.

This goes great at parties but if you want to make a small, cheap and dirty batch for just lounging around on a Saturday night, omit the fruit, use smaller cans of concentrate lemon and limeade and whatever left over wine and rum/brandy you have on hand.

Generally, we serve this at Halloween parties, or summer get togethers but there is absolutely no reason it can’t be served at Christmas or New Years. Oranges and cherries would be lovely this time of year, whereas pineapple and grapes go nicely in warmer months.