Zach Zamboni On Food, Cultures, and Travel

In years of travel, I’ve realized you can judge a culture by how much they want to feed you. Some people couldn’t care less if you eat, other people literally refuse to continue a scene unless everyone stops and eats something. A chef’s ego wants things to taste good, their heart wants to feed you. A cinematographer’s ego wants to make things beautiful, their heart just wants to tell the truth. Zach Zamboni,  cinematographer and Mainer. 

"You're an Idiot and Shouldn't Be Allowed Near a Keyboard"

This is a cartoon from 1996.

It used to be next to my desk:

I don't think I'd ever say this to a user, but there are users who suck up more time, money and resources in tech support than they will ever contribute to a community or a company or a university.

Chaucer on Sleep

“Rather then that I shulde deye
Through defaute of sleping thus,
I wolde yive thilke Morpheus,
Or his goddesse, dame Juno,
Or som wight elles, I ne roghte who—
To make me slepe and have som rest—
I wil yive him the alderbest
Yift that ever he abood his lyve,
And here on warde, right now, as blyve;
If he wol make me slepe a lyte,
Of downe of pure dowves whyte
I wil yive him a fether-bed,
Rayed with golde, and right wel cled
In fyn blak satin doutremere,
And many a pilow, and every bere
Of clothe of Reynes, to slepe softe;
Him thar not nede to turnen ofte.
And I wol yive him al that falles
To a chambre; and al his halles
I wol do peynte with pure golde,
And tapite hem ful many folde
Of oo sute; this shal he have,
Yf I wiste wher were his cave,
If he can make me slepe sone,
As did the goddesse Alcione (Chaucer The Boke of the Duchess. ll. 240–256)."

On Book Reviewing

[I now] suggest some hard-won guidelines for responsible reviewing. For instance: First, as in Hippocrates, do no harm. Second, never stoop to score a point or bite an ankle. Third, always understand that in this symbiosis, you are the parasite. Fourth, look with an open heart and mind at every different kind of book with every change of emotional weather because we are reading for our lives and that could be love gone out the window or a horseman on the roof. Fifth, use theory only as a periscope or a trampoline, never a panopticon, a crib sheet, or a license to kill. Sixth, let a hundred Harolds Bloom.

The New York Review of Science Fiction. "Editorial 192." David Hartwell. January, 2008.

On The Reviewing Of Books

[I now] suggest some hard-won guidelines for responsible reviewing. For instance: First, as in Hippocrates, do no harm. Second, never stoop to score a point or bite an ankle. Third, always understand that in this symbiosis, you are the parasite. Fourth, look with an open heart and mind at every different kind of book with every change of emotional weather because we are reading for our lives and that could be love gone out the window or a horseman on the roof. Fifth, use theory only as a periscope or a trampoline, never a panopticon, a crib sheet, or a license to kill. Sixth, let a hundred Harolds Bloom.

John Leonard in The New York Times, quoted in The New York Review of Science Fiction. “Editorial 192.” David Hartwell. January, 2008.

Octavia Butler on Writing

You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.

—Octavia E. Butler

Coleslaw

My father cooked. Not a lot, but he cooked. There were three things that he specialized in; amazing French toast, oatmeal cookies (using the original Quaker Oats recipe), and coleslaw.

I loved his coleslaw. There were two things that made his coleslaw different; one, he didn't overuse mayonnaise, and two, he added nuts. At first, it was slivered almonds, or pecans, but later, after he retired, he started using macadamia nuts. I can remember him standing over the cutting board with half a head of green cabbage, and shredding it with a knife. He didn't like to use the food processor. He'd add grated carrots, a little high quality mayo, salt and pepper to taste, and last of all, the nuts.

Some of my earliest memories are of my father chopping the cabbage for the coleslaw; I can remember him doing it when we lived in Indiana, where we lived until I was five, and I can remember him doing it some forty years or so later, when my parents were retired and living in coastal Maine. I always had a hard time waiting until dinner time to try the slaw, and Dad would often let me have a sample before (though it was always better after being chilled for a few hours). And it was something he'd make when we were camping, when I was small.

Dad's Coleslaw

Ingredients

• Cabbage
• Carrot
• Mayonnaise
• About 1/2 cup of chopped Nuts (slivered almonds, pecans, or crushed macadamia nuts, or a mixture of any 2)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Thinly slice the cabbage, horizontally, and then vertially, until you have approximately 4 cups (not packed) of sliced cabbage. (Using a mandoline helps in this case.)
2. Grate a carrot.
3. Add about 3 Tablespoons of Mayonaise for about 4 cups of cabbage; adjust to taste.
4. Add chopped nuts to about 4 cups of cabbage
5. Add pepper to taste.

The last time I had my Dad's coleslaw, he made the coleslaw in the morning, then we drove to the Keag Store (referred to as "the Gig") on Route 73 in South Thomaston, Maine, to pick up lobster rolls, (with the buns toasted in butter, first) to go with the the coleslaw.

My Dad died in 2005. They said I'd stop missing him. They were wrong.

Image Credit: Michael E. Cohen