I hadn’t actually been grocery shopping in over a month and a half. The occasional litre of milk, loaf of bread and fruit had been the extent of my perusing and, well, the usually VERY well-stocked pantry in my house was finally much worse for the wear. I should NOT be permitted to go grocery shopping after spending an entire morning leafing through the Joy of Cooking aimlessly.

The ostensible purpose of the trip was to purchase the necessities for a pork roast stuffed with pear and cranberry. This is the second time i have made this recipe and i cannot recommend it highly enough. Clearly destined to be a staple in my entertaining cooking for years to come, my only suggestion to someone trying it out is that if you are using a ceramic pot, 45 minutes is more than enough cooking time. And BE CAREFUL when you take off the lid - i burnt myself on the steam last night - after a 2L of ginger ale was dropped, open on the floor and a water glass was shattered directly in the sticky mess. We were a disaster.

To go with the pork roast, i decided on broccoli. Now, i love broccoli, but i know a lot of other people don’t, so i decided a sauce to hide the taste was essential (LOL). I was right as my guest was not particularly fond of broccoli. I based the sauce on a Joy of Cooking recipe with a few minor changes:

White Onion Cheese Sauce
In a large saucepan, combine 1 large onion chopped and 5 tbsps of chicken broth
Cover and cook over low heat, stirring often for 25 minutes. The onions should be tender, but not brown.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium-low hat, melt 2 tbsps butter. Add tbsps flour whisking until well-blended and smooth. Remove from heat and slowly whisk in 1 cup of milk. Add a dash or two of worcestershire sauce. Return to the heat, whisking until smooth.

Add your white sauce to the onion mix. Strain through a fine sieve. Return to heat and add 4 tbsps heavy cream. Whisk. Add a generous handful of grated parmesan… Spoon over steamed veggies.

I didn’t have to make dessert. My guest wowed me with pots de chocolat a la creme… WOW. My new all-time favourite dessert. It will get its own post in the future when i have made it myself.

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It may not be Nero… but i learnt a lot about anti-heros yesterday when i attended a lecture my advisor was giving for the Spring Renaissance Program at U of T.

Yesterday i had picked up an extra three hour lunch shift at work. It went well, but i REALLY could have used the time to work on my dissertation which is advancing much too slowly for my tastes.

After work and in newly-soled boots (because i am good at multi-tasking i had them repaired while i was at the restaurant), a VERY short pleated skirt and black fishnets, i headed over to a lecture given by my advisor entitled “Massacre of the Innocents: The Meaning of a Tragedy.” It was really interesting how just two verses from one of the gospels has had such an effect on art history. The male children murdered on Herod’s orders in Bethlehem could not have totaled more than twenty, but the historical sources always claim that thousands were killed. They pose quite a theological problem, which both Augustine and Aquinas contributed to resolving so that they would end up in heaven (they can’t actually be martyrs because Christ has not died yet, but Augustine says that because they die FOR Christ they won’t be stuck in limbo while Aquinas says their shed blood can be equated with the eucharist).

The early and high medieval depictions focus on the martyrdom aspects of the tale. The mothers are usually mournful but unactive… in much the same way Christian families were depicted as being when one of their own was persecuted for the faith.

By the late Middle Ages, much more of a depiction of the sociopathic nature of Herod emerges and he, as anti-hero, gets directly linked to the social problems of the given society. For example, a Florentine play has the wet nurses bring the babies to the massacre and return with no compunction for what they have done. Wet nursing was a big philosophical issue in late medieval Florence.

As the early modern era begins, Herod recedes out of the depictions which now are mostly exercises in human anatomy and facial emotion. My advisor feels this has to do with the fact that the rising absolutist governments are using a rhetoric akin to Herod’s and, hence, cannot demonize him without demonizing themselves.

We then looked at some more modern and even a contemporary depiction. Apparently the anti-abortion movement has adopted the aethestic troupe - which is interesting considering that in the biblical story the mothers are more than a little upset by the massacre.

I have a back-pack full of books to read and another shift at work today. When will i get it all done? i need to stop learning interesting things and start learning dissertation-related things. Eep. However, i am very happy i went AND it was nice to be addressed directly by my advisor who was at pains to point out the links to my own project while lecturing - an odd sensation to say the least.

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My recollection of reading Milton what is now five years ago is a little hazy. I know i was sitting in a hairdresser’s waiting room for the last hundred-or-so pages of the assigned readings and that it gave me a new-found appreciation for the depth of research put into what was then one of my favourite videogames, Diablo.

Paradise Lost and Satan played more strongly into my reading of Melville’s Moby Dick; the descriptions of the white whale that reference the descriptions of Satan are just stunning. In a perfect world, i would have the time to reread Paradise Lost, but i shan’t complain for i get to re-read Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy this week.

This post was inspired by a recent article on The Guardian’s Book Blog that can and should be read.

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This past Saturday, i was lucky enough to attend a production of My Fair Lady. I will admit that i was a tad worried because the movie with Audrey Hepburn is one of my all-time favourites and it was going to be hard to live up to the comparison.

The singing and acting were very good. I particularly liked Mrs. Higgins whom i found difficult to attach to in the aforementioned film version. Most exciting, however, was the set. Different locales changed seamlessly in a matter of seconds… all very detailed and extravagant. Prof. Higgins’ library was ALMOST as impressive as the film version - and every since i saw it i have been dreaming about having a study like that in my own home.

The costumes were quite a bit of a let-down though. When my theatre group went to see My Fair Lady in Stratford in 2002, one of the girls burst out into spontaneous tears when the curtain opened for the race scene. This production had everyone clothed in black - and frankly, the idea of Victorian women wearing black as a fashionable colour just doesn’t work for me.

All in all, it was a great show and i am very happy that we went. The day was not too ruined by my still overly painful leg-cramp and there was a great meal at Five Doors North - about which i will blog shortly - and some French lingerie shopping which always makes me happy

It’s Sunday again, so i am reviewing art online. This week i am moved into the realm of anonymous scrawling. One Sentence reminds me of those great graffiti in bathroom stalls - the ones that are witty and actually make you laugh. I haven’t had this happen more than once or twice in my life - but they were great moments. Moments that made me happy to be alive sharing in the sheer joy that is existence.

My favourite post on One Sentence, thus far, is also one of the all-time most popular (so i’m a sheep, who cares?):

One night on ecstasy, I stopped a fight between two drag queens in the ladies restroom and then I made them give each other a hug.

Although the website’s byline is “true stories, told in one sentence” i’m sure quite a few of the submissions are fake - but they are ALL believable if sometimes a little crazy.

The about page describes the project in these words:

One Sentence is an experiment in brevity. Most of the best stories that we tell from our lives have one really, really good part that make the rest of the boring story worth it. This is about that one line. This is about telling the most interesting or poignant story possible in the least amount of words. This is about small bite-sized pieces of extraordinary lives and ordinary lives alike… the happy, the sad, the funny, the depressing.

If you like Post Secret, you’ll like this.

Thursday night’s karaoke was fun-filled with general embarrassment, foiled attempts at stolen kisses, inappropriate touching and outrageous conversations. What is a good Montrealeaise if not the life of a party in a dull place like Toronto?

While standing outside smoking cigarillos (yum) we embarked down a road i was not prepared to philosophically ponder - Is a woman smoking a cigar obscene? I say yes, and hence avoid. Two men voted for hot instead. It all seems so cliche - but do i really expect more than an oral fixation from this 49% of the human population - hell no.

So, being the incredibly vain creature we all know that i am… yesterday i set out on a quest - for the most obscene facebook profile picture i can concoct - me, in white, off-the-shoulder slouch shirt, dress pant, high-heeled boots and a pin-striped hat smoking a Monte Cristo #4. The pants are being turned up by my lovely friend Alice. But, before the grand unveiling - i would like your thoughts readers… may this actually have crossed the line for what one obnoxious blonde can get away with without just being obscene?

I started working at a Subway on Sunday, and although i have been telling my fellow workers that i worked at the busiest Subway in Quebec for three years, i worked at the second-busiest Subway three years ago for three years - three is a good number. I work lunches at a busy locale - St. Joseph and Bay and evenings at a much slower Subway in drastic need of a good cleaning at Davenport and Bedford. Don’t worry - I am a cleaning machine.

The expressions goes something like two steps forward, one step back. Returning to a mindless, in fact mind-numbing career, that i had genuinely thought i had moved beyond has been an interesting experience. Like riding a bike, one does not forget how to work a cash or make sandwiches. This is good news because my entire goal in signing up for this job was the most unstressful employment possible. An added bonus has been the meeting of new people, like Amir, a twenty-four year old recent immigrant from Iran who is shamelessly using me to practice is English. I do believe there is likely some shisha smoking in my future. I like shisha, so this is good.

Two other jobs you say? Well, i have one other job and two half jobs. I am still working as a collector for The Soul Suite and i babysit to lower my rent as well as blog. Yes, this blog has effectively been monetized and is now contributing about $45/month to my income. Also as a development in my web-presence, i recently launched a Canadian Blog Carnival: Beyond the 49th Parallel. I strongly encourage my readers to submit articles in order to help me get this project off the ground if they are so inclined.

My dissertation is moving along more slowly than i would like, but mostly owing to a need to get into a routine of working and studying and a week-end spent visiting old friends. Veronica and I found a GREAT El-Salvadorian restaurant with incredibly reasonably priced food on Friday night. Saturday i went to visit Ela who is still recovering from back surgery.

Sometime over the week-end, i developed a bad leg cramp on my left shin. I have spent all Wednesday in the house, despite original plans to go to the Rare Book Library at Robbart’s and get a haircut, attempting to stay off my feet and recuperate. The cramp hurts less, but we’ll see how another day on my feet pans out.

In other news, thank god that the television season is finally wrapping up. House MD has become a bit of an obsession and now with that and CSI and CSI: New York out of sight i might get back to a regular, albeit abnormal, sleep schedule.

In an attempt to increase my web presence in the appropriate spheres (i.e. in the search for my intended audience), i have recently discovered Blog Carnival. Blog Carnival is a website that maintains a directory of the individual carnivals published online (and obviously registered with the site). A carnival is a collection of posts on a given theme - similar to an online magazine. I’ve taken an interest in Carnivalesque, a carnival devoted to pre-modern history and, in fact, was lucky enough to have my post on the Great Florentine Fire of 1304 included in the latest edition at A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe.

It’s nice to see what other medievalists are up to on the internet and i think i am quickly becoming a fan of Carnivalesque.

Image by keenbrown via Flickr

Contrary to popular belief among my high school peers – I do not think I know everything. I do think, however, that it is particularly interesting to learn about something radically new and differrent. Recently, a good friend of mine, Derek, stopped publishing his own blog which I followed religiously. I approached him to write a piece on online poker – a hobby of his I find intriguing and was apt to learn more about. If you would be interested in writing a guest blogger post for my website, please email me and we can work something out.

I was first attracted to poker by the Chris Moneymaker craze of 2002. My first experiences playing Texas Hold’em were in the Champlain Video Game Club room, playing for little tokens which represented no value. We tried to take it seriously back then, but as no money was changing hands, it was more for bragging rights than anything.

Let’s fast forward to 2007, when I first started playing online poker for money. My oldest friend, who is also a poker enthusiast, drew me into playing on Pokerstars.com for low stakes. I had a rough start, still being very much an amateur with little clue to the grander strategies of the game.

One thing I specifically wanted to do when first playing online was to develop bluffing skills. In my mind, knowing when to bluff is the only aspect of poker which keeps it from being a pure gambling game. When you can walk away with money when having the worst hand, then you’ve done something special. When you can do that consistently enough that you never go weeks at a time without winning a game, then you know what you’re doing.

To pull off a well-timed bluff, you need a hand which is bad enough that you are indeed bluffing, and an opponent who is afraid of you enough not to call your raise. Bluffing before the flop requires more explaining than I will provide today, so I will deal here with bluffing on the flop and the turn.

Assume that only you and one other player have decided to see the flop (the first three community cards). Also assume that it is your turn to act first, or rather, to check or bet. The three community cards have done relatively little for your hand. Firstly, control your emotions enough so that your opponent does not perceive your bad luck. Secondly, bet. Don’t bet a lot, but bet enough that your opponent will think you’ve hit a strong hand. With the number of cards in a deck of cards, the chances are more likely than not that they will fold right here, and you will have won the pot. However, this highly depends on the mentality of the other player, and their experience level. They might be a new player, and not have a proper understanding of when to fold or call. In such a case, bluffing them is dangerous, because they might call a majority of the time, and then get lucky later on in the hand.

Let’s now assume that the other player calls your flop bet. You know have a decision to make. Will you continue bluffing your strength on the turn, or will you be cautious and avoid them calling another bluff? This can very much depend on how much you have left to risk. If you are in trouble with your chip stack, then it could be either courageous or foolhardy to bluff again. If you do though, bluff more than you did on the flop. Generally speaking, any raise a player makes should be 50% to 100% of whatever the current pot is. Anything less than 50% is usually considered a joke, and anything over 100% is usually more than you need, and could hurt a lot if you don’t have the best hand. So the turn comes and again it doesn’t help you, but you perceive that it doesn’t help your opponent either. Bet again, and hope that they fold. If they call, its very likely you have the worst hand, and you should probably not bet the river.

The concept of bluffing is very much based on the concept that making a hand is more rare than missing your hand. Also, when playing with people of experience, you can very much play on their fears that even though they have a hand, that you have a better hand. I can not tell you how many countless times I’ve had the best hand, and then saw it go down in flames. I now fold more hands because of it. Always keep this in mind at the table, as bluffing can be a pretty common occurrence. You need to be confident in your bluffs, confident when you hit a hand, but not so overconfident to observe when you might be beat.

About the author: I’m a student in history, currently finishing up my degree at Concordia University. I met Heather there back in 2005, in a Middle-East history class. We became fast friends (it was hard to get away from all her talking).

It’s the May Long Week-End and those of us with green thumbs can finally start gardening without fear of a frost ruining our hard work. This is the third consecutive Victoria Day i will be celebrating in Toronto - and i hope it is as pleasant as the last two which included a visit to a multitude of tourist traps and a family dinner with people who were not my family.

Victoria Day is celebrated on the Monday before May 24th or May 24th itself in honour of the most illustrious sovereign’s birthday. There was a bit of confusion with respect to when to celebrate later sovereign’s birthdays, and now the May 24th long week-end is considered to be a joint celebration. Apparently there are annual fireworks in Victoria, BC which i have yet to witness - but hope to some day.

Of course, Queen Victoria is dear to the heart of many Canadians for having given Canada its independence (at least as far as domestic policy was concerned - we only became independent with respect to other powers after WWI - hence why we entered the war when Great Britain did). One would expect SOME gratitude on the part of Quebec as a nation for the constitution which we still uphold (as the Charlottetown Accords were never passed and the new Constitution never ratified) for so many of the clauses which ensures Quebec’s status as a nation. However, like so many things, the historical events get jaded by politics and Quebec celebrates Fete des Patriotes on this federal holiday which it cannot legally avoid.

I am particularly fond of the Patriotes of 1837-8. My more devoted readers may remember that i have an ancestor who was hanged for his participation in the Papineau Rebellion (see here). Unfortunately for those trying to avoid references to a British heritage, the Patriotes movement was largely the result of law professionals arguing that taxation without representation was unconstitutional - sound familiar? It was not an attempt to separate the French-speakers from the English-speakers, but rather an attempt to more fully adopt the political reforms that were taking place in Great Britain. Although violence erupted, and the cannon ball holes are still visible at the Church in Ste. Eustache which i have rollerbladed and driven by on numerous occasions, the leader of the movement, Papineau, was strongly anti-violence. He fled to the United States rather than getting involved in an armed confrontation. Smart move as the Patriotes were quickly put down and Amable Daunais, my distant uncle, was hanged the next February.

Note: The Portrait of Queen Victoria by Franz Xavier Winterhalter contained in the Royal Collection is under the Copyright of her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II and is a link to the British Government’s Biography of Queen Victoria.