Zadok the priest; Pop. 1280; a recipe

Karin: “Zadok the priest
And Nathan the prophet
Were hangin’ out,
Doing some stuff.”

Some commenter on YouTube: “Can you imagine when the Queen eventually passes away, and Charles becomes King. As he walks through Westminster Abbey on the day of his coronation … 95% of the viewing public are going to be thinking to themselves, ‘Why the bloody hell are they playing the Champions League theme?!?!’”

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Per this entry: Jim Thompson’s Pop. 1280 has arrived from a library in Connecticut. So far, it’s better than The Killer Inside Me. Funnier, at least.

I’d been thinking it was about time to do some political campaignin’, since I had a pretty tough opponent coming up for a change. … [¶] Always before, I’d let the word get around that I was against this and that, things like cockfighting and gambling and whiskey and so on. So my opposition would figure they’d better come out against ’em, too, only twice as strong as I did. And I went right ahead and let ’em. Me, almost anyone can make a better speech than I can, and anyone can come out stronger against or for something. Because, me, I’ve got no very strong convictions about anything. Not anymore I haven’t.
[Ch. 9, ¶¶ 1–2]

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Today’s lunch:

Ingredients for the rice cooker:

• Butter (1 tablespoon)
• Brown rice, dry (1/3 cup)
• Water A (2/3 cup)
• Red lentils, dry (1/2 cup)
• Water B (1 cup)
• Russet potatoes, raw, cut into 1/2-in cubes (5 oz)
• Jalapeño peppers, raw, chopped (2 oz)
• Yellow onions, raw, chopped (3 oz)
• Broccoli, raw, chopped (5 oz)
• Sazón Goya (1 packet)
• Water C (1/2 cup)

Other ingredients:

• Tortillas
• Sour cream
• Cheese, shredded
• Etc.

The steps are what you’d expect.

There are approx. 835 kcals in the pot; the amounts and kinds of tortillas, sour cream, cheese, etc. are up to you. The filling, once cooked, is pasty, like refried beans. It’s lumpy where the potatoes are, and just a little crunchy because the rice retains some hardness (don’t worry, it’s edible). To make the rice come out softer, if that is your desire, use more water, although that’ll make everything softer. Or, I dunno, use less rice.

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Scott was baptized in a small church in Michigan; afterward, there was special music by one of the congregants. “The guy told us he’d recorded four CDs,” said Jennifer, Karin’s stepsister. “I wasn’t expecting him to sing them all.”

A consumer report

I’m testing the public library’s interlibrary loan service. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to order books through the website (and, usually, I’m pretty handy at that sort of thing).

No matter. The library is a six-minute walk from my house. I make the journey.

I disclose my desire to the clerk. He puts in the order. It takes two minutes. All hunky dory.

Three days later, I get an email. Your loan will be ready in 2 to 4 weeks (boldface in the original).

Two to four weeks! Now, I don’t like to be an ingrate, but that’s just not going to cut it, at least not on a consistent basis. In two to four weeks I could have an entirely different set of interests. Thank goodness this book isn’t for a research project; it’s just Pop. 1280, another of Jim Thompson’s lurid, cynical novels about wicked small-town officers of the law. Another novel I could take or leave (although, at this moment, I’m definitely itching to read it).

There are days I wish I still worked at IUSB, where, as often as not, a desired book would be on campus; alternatively, I could order it from Bloomington, Fort Wayne, Kokomo, or wherever and pick it up after four or five days.

Step out of academia, though, and I get banished to the outer darkness.

Daniel is old enough now that I give him board books and they entertain him for a good ten minutes. Samuel, alas, is not as interested in books as he used to be. He watches too much YouTube.