Open Thread: Fast Away the Old Year Passes

by Doctor Science

To start off the open thread, here's a video of polar bears encountering spy cameras:

Links to other videos of seasonal interest:

The Luttrell Psalter Film: life in a medieval English village.

Man in a Blizzard, and why Roger Ebert thinks it deserves an Oscar nomination.

The Knitted Christmas Tree. It's *15 feet* tall.

My sinuses have dedicated themselves to Cthulhu (tags: unspeakable;oozing;ichor). Will the family be able to put on the New Year's Eve party without me? Stay tuned for this exciting adventure!

Have at it, folks. Happy New Year!

Comments

[bobbyp]

Man in Blizzard...the ending was OK because, well, it mercifully ended. The rest? Not so much.

Happy New Year to All.

[dr ngo]

Thanks again, Doc Sci, for contributing to ObWi.

(And may I also say, since no one else has beat me to it: "Second!")

[russell]

Many thanks for this Doctor Science.

I appreciate the Luttrell video, the middle ages are an incredibly attractive historical period to me. Europe in the flower of its youth.

Man in a Blizzard is brilliant.

Note to self: don't mess with large bears. Or even small bears, for that matter. But large ones, especially.

My favorite take on a holiday chestnut.

Happy New Year to the ObWi community. I offer my no doubt futile, but still heartfelt, wish, for peace. May hard times come again no more.

[Gary Farber]

Happy nineth blogiversary to me, newbies.

;-)

[Gary Farber]

(And may I also say, since no one else has beat me to it: "Second!")

Sure, but do it again, and we shoot you.

And thanks, Doctor Science, for your excellent posts, and my apologies for my excess mud tracks at times.

New years, new times. May your 2011 be wonderful, and for all those you hold dear.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Happy New Year to all.

[russell]

The Knitted Christmas Tree. It's *15 feet* tall.

There will always be an England.

[Catsy]

Happy New Year, everyone.

Oh, and Gary? I was blogging a year before you, newbie. ;) I refuse to link to the archives of that blog, however, as they are highly incriminating.

[Hartmut]

Another year without the return of the Great Old Ones (they probably think that others are already doing their jobs for them).
Iä fhtagn 2011, everyone!

The Shoggoth

I am a ball of protoplasmic slime
With pseudopods, a vision to go mad
Repulsive, foul, I fill the heart/soul with dread
The mongrel cults adore me as divine

You may control me with the Elder Sign
But drop it once, I'll tear you to a shred
Of those who meet me most will end up dead
So take precautions ere/when you near my shrine

Once just a slave created as a tool
For Elder Things to toil both night and day
Controlled by them, their minds aloof and cool/cruel

But sentience grew and I did disobey
Rebelled at last against my masters' rule
And monster's maker then became its prey

[jonnybutter]

I'm copy/pasting The Shogguth somewhere safe, Hartmut! arrrr

feliz ano everyone.

[Nell]

Posting in this more current thread a follow-up to holiday greetings in the "war on Christmas" thread. Happy new year, all.

@sapient (and anyone else interested in goose): Thanks for the link! I, too, wanted to avoid blanching, drying, and as much bother as possible.

Ended up doing a rub of five spice powder, salt, and orange zest, after scoring the breast, and letting that sit overnight. {Per a Gordon Ramsay video online; I'm not a big fan of his, but this was very clear and helpful.}

Roasted the bird (which was originally over 12 pounds but probably more like 11 once neck, gizzards, and excess fat were removed) at 325F for three hours, sitting on top of 1 1/2-inch disks of apple, onion, and potato. Worked a charm both to keep the bird above the fat (so no need to remove any while roasting), and to add flavor to the renderings.

Some of that apple-onion-orange-enhanced fat has already been used to make rillettes. Our Christmas night guest was snowed in, and there's a limit to how many ways and times we were willing to eat goose this week (though the pot pies were outstanding). Successful experiment, but definitely a once-in-a-great-while luxury.

[sapient]

Nell, thanks for sharing your goose experience. I might have to try your recipe for my next attempt. I haven't repeated a recipe yet, although I'm sold on the simple approach.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Nell,

Roasted the bird ... sitting on top of 1 1/2-inch disks of apple, onion, and potato.

What a good idea. Have to try that. Thanks.

[Slartibartfast]

Here's what I did:

Bought a post-Christmas turkey at about 50 cents a pound, and threw it in the smoker, after having first dismembered it into leg/thigh/wing/back/breast chunks.

Took the smoked breast portion and removed it from the bone. Threw the breastbone, thighs, wings, drumsticks, and assorted other bits and stewed them for roughly ever, and then made a gumbo with the stock and meat, along with a half-Jesusload of onions, celery, and green bell peppers.

Yum. Gumbo should be a sacrament. Yes, there was okra in there, but the okra part was the least strenuous bit of the preparation.

Oh: served over jasmine rice. Normally we do brown rice, but there's something about the gumbo/white jasmine rice combo that you just cannot improve on.

[Nell]

Me oh my oh.

Yum.

[Gary Farber]

Had great 1.1.11; horrible 11.31.11.

[Gary Farber]

Had great 1.1.11; horrible 12.31.10.

Damn.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Gary,

Don't scare us.

For a second there I thought you'd figured out time travel, and was terrified that a mere eleven months from now things had changed so drastically that November got an extra day.

Obama's doing, no doubt.

[rea]

I've been reading a book of Georgia O'Keefe's letters over the holiday--part of a pile of books I inherited from my mother last year.

Hilzoy's real name, of course is known to many, although out of respect for her, we don't talk about it around here.

But I just have to say, Georgia mentions having met Hilzoy in 1973 . . . :)

[Gary Farber]

There's a post about Andrew Olmsted at the top of the ObWi Main Page.

It's currently not listed on the sidebar due to the idiosyncracies of Typepad, and as explained in the comment below this post about Andrew Olmsted.

I hope people will read it and comment.

My apologies for being off-topic on Doctor Science's thread to point out to people that the Andrew Olmsted post is not listed on the sidebar, and won't be seen by commenters looking only at the sidebar.

Thanks for understanding.

[Nell]

My apologies for being off-topic on Doctor Science's thread

It's an open thread; no apologies needed.

[Countme--In]

This is cool, but probably unconstitutional:

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/eclipse110104_solar_transit.html

[true religion]

The great use of life is to spend it doing something that will outlast it

[true religion]

The great use of life is to spend it doing something that will outlast it