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Endings

Michael Bywater's "My Dad had the best death" (via Andy):

We brought his bed downstairs towards the end, and there he lay, fading peaceably in his own sitting room, surrounded by his dogs and grandchildren and cats and people coming in and out.

I say "peaceably", but there were episodes of purest tyranny. My sister had given him one of those wireless dingdong doorbells to summon her, and he exercised it to the limit. But although he had been denunciatory, condemning her to me, and me to her, and his doctors (who had actually called everything perfectly) to anyone who'd listen, once he was on his deathbed he became affable and loving.

Right until the end, when it just dwindled to a tiny white spot, like an old television, before going out entirely with an inaudible plink, his personality was entire.

The Biggest Dog in the World

Recently I've become a little obsessed with finding photos of the largest dog in the world. Here's my favorite [1]:

[1] Who is, by the way, not the largest dog in the world, but just a very large dog. He's no Hercules.

A Rave Christmas

I like the Raveonettes best in small doses, and--oddly enough, or not--I have a real fondness for their Christmas-themed songs.

There's just something about the nostalgia in their sound that, for me, works really well with songs about the holidays, the end of the year, Christmas, &c.

Anyway, all of which is to say that I'm enjoying their Wishing You a Rave Christmas EP, and, in particular, the ambiguously-punctuated "Come on Santa", which you can hear here.

Thanksgiving Food

Thanksgiving dinner:

Persimmon and Pomegranate salad with Arugula and Hazelnuts, from the Lucques cookbook: a delicious and light start to the heavier courses to come. (Watch Suzanne Goin and Martha Stewart make this salad.)

Chestnut Stuffing, as delicious as the first time.

Roast Chicken with potatoes. Simple and wonderful.

Pumpkin Pie with Spiced Walnut Streusel. Lovely the first night still warm; even better the second day cold; and, I'm guessing, better yet the third day. I'll know, tomorrow!

But the best of all, frankly, were the sandwiches we made tonight: leftover roast chicken, stuffing, cranberry sauce, homemade mayonnaise, and frisée, all on toasted white bread; served alongside roasted brussels sprouts with bacon, the only way to make them: roasted for 20-25 minutes at a high temperature until they're almost blackened on the outside.

Soup (and faith) with Prince

Last week's New Yorker had a brief & strange article about Prince in Talk of the Town. My favorite part was this bit about his Jehovah's Witness faith:

He attends meetings at a local Kingdom Hall, and, like his fellow-witnesses, he leaves his gated community from time to time to knock on doors and proselytize. "Sometimes people act surprised, but mostly they're really cool about it," he said.

Serious Music

Il Divo's performance of "Hallelujah" is the most sincere thing, ever (via Idolator):

Treasure

My favorite in the series:

Bread

Oh, the things that you can do with bread!

1. Suzanne Goin's Chestnut Stuffing (from Lucques), with fennel, pancetta, and many other wonderful things. This was the side dish to a veal chop, marinated in thyme, rosemary, garlic, and olive oil, and which was itself incredible, and yet: I'm going back for the stuffing.

2. Bread Pudding, from Simply Recipes. Odds are, you've got everything you need to make this bread pudding; I decided to make it at 9pm, because I wanted something sweet, and I had leftover bread from the stuffing, and, because I'm a normal person, I have milk, vanilla, eggs, sugar, and spices. And that's all you need! And it's absolutely delicious.

Call it

I'm watching No Country for Old Men for the third or fourth time tonight, and damn is it an incredible movie. And this scene, well:

When Obama Won

Oh, and we have a new president, too! I like that, a lot.

In the days preceding the election, I--like a lot of people, I suspect--realized that it was starting to seem pretty real; that we may actually, you know, have a president that we can believe in, yes, but also one who broke through some pretty fundamental (historically) barriers. That's really enough to make you tear up, honestly.

But so anyway, there are so many fantastic photos of President Obama (that sounds good, doesn't it?), but here's my favorite of all of them, because at heart, I'm a total sap, and I really like his family, and damn, don't they all look pretty happy to see each other?