kidzdoc's No Fluff Zone, Act 6

In the spring a (not so) young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of...London!




Currently reading:

    

Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Completed books: (TBR = book acquired prior to 1/1/16)

January:
1. Nutshell by Ian McEwan
2. A Question of Power by Bessie Head TBR
3. The Assault by Harry Mulisch
4. Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill by Dimitri Verlhurst

February:

March:
5. The Speed of Light by Javier Cercas
6. I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin

April:
7. The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
8. A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman
9. The Plague (after La Peste) by Albert Camus, adapted by Neil Bartlett
10. Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
11. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
12. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Books acquired and purchased:

January:
1. The Lives of Things by José Saramago (1 Jan, Verso e-book ($1))
2. Syria Burning: A Short History of a Catastrophe by Charles Glass (1 Jan, Verso e-book ($1))
3. Human Acts by Han Kang (12 Jan, LT Early Reviewers ARC)
4. Attending Others: A Doctor's Education in Bodies and Words by Brian Volck (25 Jan, Kindle book ($9.99))
5. Miss Jane by Brad Watson (30 Jan, Kindle book ($12.89))

February:

March:
6. Lonely Planet Pocket Bilbao & San Sebastian (Travel Guide) (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
7. Time Out Edinburgh (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
8. I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck by James Baldwin (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
9. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
10. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
11. Swing Time by Zadie Smith (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
12. War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans (24 Mar, Kindle e-book ($12.99))
13. My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg (26 Mar, Kindle e-book ($2.99))
14. Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou (27 Mar, Kindle e-book ($7.99))
15. The Practice House by Laura McNeal (29 Mar, Kindle e-book ($0.00))
16. Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas (29 Mar, Kindle e-book ($1.99))

April:
17. The Golden Age by Joan London (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($9.99))
18. Compass by Mathias Énard (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($13.35))
19. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($12.99))
20. The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($14.04))
21. A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($12.99))
22. How to Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul (8 Apr, LT Early Reviewers book)
23. The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee (13 Apr, Blackwell's @Wellcome Collection (£8.99))
24. How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France (13 Apr, Blackwell's @Wellcome Collection (£20.00))
25. I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong (13 Apr, Blackwell's @Wellcome Collection (£17.00))
26. The Plague (after La Peste) by Albert Camus, adapted by Neil Bartlett (15 Apr, Arcola Theatre (£5.00))
27. Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz (20 Apr, Joseph's Bookstore (£8.99))
28. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (20 Apr, Joseph's Bookstore (£8.99))
29. Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£10.99))
30. Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£12.99))
31. Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£14.99))
32. The Traitor's Niche by Ismail Kadare (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£16.99))
33. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£14.99))
34. Selected Poems by Linton Kwesi Johnson (20 Apr, New Beacon Books (£9.99))
35. The Cattle Killing by John Edgar Wideman (20 Apr, New Beacon Books (£16.99))
36. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (20 Apr, New Beacon Books (£15.99))
37. Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer's Awakening by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (20 Apr, New Beacon Books (£14.99))
38. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (24 Apr, The Old Vic Theatre (£9.99))

Classic 20th Century Novels from the African Diaspora

Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange
Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes
The Emigrants by George Lamming
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (re-read)
The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt
Maps by Nuruddin Farah
Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston
Native Son by Richard Wright
Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
A Question of Power by Bessie Head
Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau

Notable 21st Century Literature from the African Diaspora

Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa
Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney
The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
The Drift Latitudes by Jamal Mahjoub
Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
Foreign Gods, Inc. by Okey Ndibe
Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Juice! by Ishmael Reed
Ladivine by Marie NDiaye
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Pym by Mat Johnson
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Wading Home: A Novel of New Orleans by Rosalyn Story
Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Nonfiction from the African Diaspora

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Beyond Black and White: From Civil Rights to Barack Obama by Manning Marable
Black in Latin America by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W.E.B. Du Bois
Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
If They Come in the Morning … : Voices of Resistance, edited by Angela Y. Davis
In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture by K. Anthony Appiah
Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole
Letter to Jimmy by Alain Mabanckou
The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City by William Julius Wilson
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewis
Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Tradition and the Black Atlantic: Critical Theory in the African Diaspora by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Autobiographies, Biographies and Memoirs from the African Diaspora

Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David Macey
I Never Had it Made by Jackie Robinson
The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Mingus Speaks by John F. Goodman
Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim by Justin Gifford
Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson by Wil Haygood
Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire

2017 Booker Prize longlist: TBD

2017 Man Booker International Prize longlist
(*shortlisted title):



*Mathias Énard (France), Charlotte Mandell, Compass
Wioletta Greg (Poland), Eliza Marciniak, Swallowing Mercury
*David Grossman (Israel), Jessica Cohen, A Horse Walks Into a Bar
Stefan Hertmans (Belgium), David McKay, War and Turpentine
*Roy Jacobsen (Norway), Don Bartlett, Don Shaw, The Unseen
Ismail Kadare (Albania), John Hodgson, The Traitor's Niche
Jon Kalman Stefansson (Iceland), Phil Roughton, Fish Have No Feet
Yan Lianke (China), Carlos Rojas, The Explosion Chronicles
Alain Mabanckou (France), Helen Stevenson, Black Moses
Clemens Meyer (Germany), Katy Derbyshire, Bricks and Mortar
*Dorthe Nors (Denmark), Misha Hoekstra, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal
*Amos Oz (Israel), Nicholas de Lange, Judas
*Samanta Schweblin (Argentina), Megan McDowell, Fever Dream

Iberian Literature and Nonfiction

A Bad End by Fernando Royuela
The Calligraphy of Dreams by Juan Marsé
Catalonia: A Cultural History by Michael Eaude
The Dolls' Room by Llorenç Villalonga
Fado Alexandrino by António Lobo Antunes
The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla
The History of Catalonia by F. Xavier Hernàndez
The Inquisitors' Manual by António Lobo Antunes
Life Embitters by Josep Pla
Monastery by Eduardo Halfon
The New Spaniards by John Hooper
Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga
Paris by Marcos Giralt Torrente
Private Life by Josep Maria de Sagarra
The Selected Stories of Mercé Rodoreda
The Speed of Light by Javier Cercas
Things Look Different in the Light by Medardo Fraile
The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares

Medicine, Illness and Public Health

AIDS at 30: A History by Victoria A. Harden
An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine by Howard Markel
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby
Bedlam: London and Its Mad by Katharine Arnold
Death in a Small Package: A Short History of Anthrax by Susan D. Jones
Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders by Dan Bortolotti
Jonas Salk: A Life by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr
The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times by Barbara Taylor
Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine by Andrew Scull
Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad-Doctors & Lunatics by Roy Porter
The Man Who Closed the Asylums: Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care by John Foot
Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder by David Healy
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues by Martin J. Blaser, MD
The Price of Silence: A Mom's Perspective on Mental Illness by Liza Long
Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and Their Doctors by David Mendel
States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness by Wellcome Collection

The Rise of Populism and Related Current Affairs

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
Listen, Liberal: Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank
The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics by John B. Judis
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

Reading Globally

Quarter 1: Works by writers from the Benelux countries



The Assault by Harry Mulisch
The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans
Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill by Dimitri Verhulst
Rituals by Cees Nooteboom
Roads to Santiago by Cees Nooteboom
Three Bedrooms in Manhattan by Georges Simenon

Quarter 2: Travel writing by non-European and non-North American authors



The European Tribe by Caryl Phillips
Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir by Binyavanga Wainaina

Quarter 3: Works by writers who write in what are considered minority languages within their own country

Quarter 4: Writers from the Scandinavian countries and associated territories

Voices of Color/Social Justice

Al' America: Travels Through America's Arab and Islamic Roots by Jonathan Curiel
Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones
A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery by E. Benjamin Skinner
Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America by Tiny, aka Lisa Gray-Garcia
To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War by John Gibler
Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid by Joseph Nevins
The Ethics of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America, edited by Rubén G. Rumbaut and Alejandro Portes
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
For the Muslims: Islamophobia in France by Edwy Plenel
The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla
A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America by Óscar Martínez
The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah
How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi
Howard Zinn on Race by Howard Zinn
Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation by Ray Suarez
Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South by Mary E. Odem
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson by Suleiman Mourad
The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror by Arun Kundnani
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture by Hisham D. Aidi
Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties by Karen L. Ishizuka
Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques
Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move by Reece Jones
We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities by Anouar Majid
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness by Alice Walker
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam by John L. Esposito
Who Are We: And Should It Matter in the Twenty-First Century? by Gary Younge

2017 Wellcome Book Prize longlist:



*How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
*When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
*Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal (alternate title: The Heart: A Novel)
The Golden Age by Joan London
Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant
*The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
*The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
*I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

*shortlisted title

2016 Wellcome Book Prize shortlist:



Playthings by Alex Pheby
It's All in Your Head by Suzanne O'Sullivan
The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

2015 Wellcome Book Prize shortlist:



The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being by Alice Roberts
My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Planned reads for April (subject to change):

Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
How to Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir by Binyavanga Wainaina
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities by Anouar Majid

In the spirit of Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, everyone is now welcome to visit this thread! Mind the scaffolding, though.

Happy new thread, Darryl! Am I really first?

Wow! You are first, Shelley! A hearty cheers to you; please help yourself to cream tea.

Cream tea available here? Yes please! Although the order in which those scones are done is wrong - it is always jam, then cream ;). This is a long running row in the UK though, as to the correct way round.

Shove over, Ermintrude! I want some!

Happy new thread, Darryl :)

I love the London sign photo AND the cream tea. Oh how I do love cream tea!!

Happy new thread. I walked past one of the welcome posters today - nice to see.
I really like the street sign one - mappa mundi.
https://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/londonisopen/

>15 lunacat: Hi, Jenny! I always put jam on top of cream, similar to the order in that photo. I'm American, though, so that explains why I have it backwards.

>16 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie! We Americans will have to enjoy those wrong way scones in place of Jenny and other Britons.

>17 RebaRelishesReading: Same here, Reba! It's been awhile since I had cream tea, so hopefully I can partake of it next week. I fly to London on Tuesday night, arrive late on Wednesday morning, and will be there for two full weeks. I received my new passport in the mail yesterday, so I'm all set.

>18 charl08: Thanks, Charlotte. Hopefully I'll see several of the 'London Is Open' signs, and be able to take photos of them, which I'll post here and on Facebook.

Careful. I might have to de-friend you if any more deviant behaviours, like cream before jam, occur. There are only so many things this Briton can take ;).

Happy new thread, Darryl.

The Blitz, Brexit, the Westminster attack and now an assault on our scones! Let's rally together and fight them on the deck chairs by eating all the scones before our American cousins take them all, Jenny!

>14 kidzdoc: - Why, thank you! I'll be sure to sip daintily and try not to leave too many crumbs :-)

Happy New Thread, buddy. Oh, London, yes, indeed. >14 kidzdoc: looks so good!

>20 lunacat: This article from The Guardian, How to eat: a cream tea, provides the definitive answer to the correct construction of a scone:

I am not convinced that the famous disagreement between Cornwall (jam first, then cream) and Devon (cream first, then jam) is really a "thing". It just helps keep the cream tea in the news. I know Devonians who take the Cornish approach, I have seen numerous Cornish venues serving scones Devon-style, and, if you are using a properly thick cream, which you should be – one that won't easily slip off a jammy surface – then there is a good argument that the sequence doesn't matter.

Yet I think it does, and for a reason that is rarely discussed: taste. Not only is jam-on-cream far more aesthetically appealing, but by plopping the jam on top you allow its flavour to shine through. Hide it under the cream, and whatever jam you use will only be discernible as a relatively faint flavour (I assume it is something to do with fat coating your mouth first, and inhibiting your tastebuds). The difference isn't earth-shattering, but it is enough – on points – to say that the order should be scone, cream and then, finally, jam.

I agree completely!

Sorry, Jenny. I fear that you won't be permitted back into the UK upon your return from Spain, since you clearly don't know how to prepare cream tea properly. Perhaps you can seek asylum in Trumplandia.

>21 PaulCranswick: Careful, Paul! You might find yourself in the same boat as Jenny, the future Briton-in-exile.

Next question: does the pronunciation of "scone" rhyme with "cone", or with "con"? I vote "cone".

>22 jessibud2: Thank you, Shelley. I can always count on my Canadian visitors to display proper manners.

>23 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! (Dang, I really do need to reply to your old request.)

Yesterday after work I tried a new recipe for dinner, Avocado Tuna Salad, which I don't think I've ever had before:



Ingredients:

15 oz (or 3 small cans) tuna in oil, drained and flaked
1 English cucumber, sliced
2 large or 3 medium avocados, peeled, pitted & sliced
1 small/medium red onion, thinly sliced
½ small bunch of cilantro (1/4 cup chopped)
2 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt, or to taste
⅛ tsp black pepper

Instructions:

1. In a large salad bowl, combine: sliced cucumber, sliced avocado, thinly sliced red onion, drained tuna, and ¼ cup cilantro
2. Drizzle salad ingredients with 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt and ⅛ tsp black pepper (or season to taste). Toss to combine and serve.
_________________________________

I was utterly blown away by this salad yesterday! It's full of flavor, and the avocado provided sufficient creaminess that mayonnaise or salad dressing wasn't necessary. The photo above represents half of the salad, which will provide four full servings. I brought a container for lunch today, shared it with several colleagues, and at least two of them planned to make it for dinner tonight.

Darryl, for the salad - I usually buy solid white albacore tuna in water. Do you think having it packed in oil makes a significant difference?

>21 PaulCranswick: Being posh I rhyme it with cone. Unless I am doing a limerick for my friend Don in which case it's con.

There was a young man named Don
Who delighted in eating a scone
Whether with jam first or cream
It doesn't matter it seems
And to say so is really a con.

There is too much horrendousness here. Jam on top of cream, scone rhyming with cone. I shall have to vacate this thread and simply turn up for the next one, in the hopes it is less disturbing.

Happy new thread, Darryl!! Loving the scones, the jam & cream debate, the poem. Feeling most welcome as I sit and eat mine, which rhymes with tone and has jam on top!! Sorry Ermintrude. xoxo

Con, cone, who cares. Just gimme!

Anthony, his friends called him Tone
Had no problems pronouncing his scone.
Unlike his pal Don
Who termed it a scone
And argued on it; a dog with a bone.

I've started The Tidal Zone also, but very slow reader - only about 50 pages in. I'll take a scone (like "cone") but just with cream, please.

Definitely jam first then cream on my scone (rhyming with Don).

Jam first. Otherwise you get cream on the jam knife.

I thought everyone knew jam then cream on scones...

Hmmm might have to do some baking when I get back home tommorow afternoon

Happy new thread, Darryl!

Scone rhyming with tone or scone rhyming with gone is fine with me. But please do not sully my scone with jam or cream - just a little bit of butter, please!

Woo! Today is my last day of work for the month. Not that I'm happy or anything...

>26 katiekrug: I don't see any reason why you couldn't use tuna in water, Katie. I searched vainly for tuna in oil at Publix, and was about to give up when I finally found some. I thought it was a bit odd that the tuna I used was stored in olive oil, which I had to drain and then use olive oil to make the salad.



You might have to add 1-2 tsp of olive oil to the salad, but other than that I think you would be fine.

I forgot to mention that Natasha, the blogger who posted the recipe, suggested leaving out the salt from the salad if you weren't planning to eat it right away, so that the cucumbers would remain crisp. I divided it into three containers, not counting the bowl I had for dinner Wednesday night, and added salt when I was ready to eat. I had it for lunch yesterday, nearly had it for dinner last night, and I'm having it again today, if that gives you any indication how much I love this salad.

>27 PaulCranswick: I assume that the man in your poem is Spanish, with the long "o" Castilian pronunciation of the name, e.g., Don Diego. It would make perfect sense then, although the last word needs an "e" added to it.

>28 lunacat: Sorry, Jenny. The Guardian is the standard bearer for British culture IMO, so the preferred — make that only — manner in which scones will be served in this thread is jam on top of cream.

The cream/jam debate seems similar to the one that induces the most virulent comments in the US. No, it's not Democrat vs Republican; it's mayonnaise vs Miracle Whip (gag). I have yet to meet anyone who likes both sandwich spreads (although calling Miracle Whip a sandwich spread is like calling McDonald's plasticized Chicken McNuggets real chicken).

Happy new thread, Darryl!
>25 kidzdoc: looks good but Tuna? piiiittttuuuuueeeeee, hlah

Wow, you went there. Mayo vs Miracle Whip may blow up the thread. :D

Oh, and not just mayo, but Duke's mayo. Taking it to the next level of controversy...

Yum, the salad looks lovely! And hooray! It almost fits into my diet. (Avocados a no no - but I've been known to cheat with them and I'll do it again!)

>38 kidzdoc: Nope Darryl - first Limerick the Don is as per the English pronunciation - could also be John.

the salad looks great!

Happy new thread, Darryl, enjoy your free of work rest of the month :-)

>29 Berly: *fist bumps Kim for indicating the correct pronunciation of "scone" and construction of one*

>30 drneutron: True...as long as they are good scones. I've had a lot of bad ones on this side of the pond!

>31 PaulCranswick: Ah. Don is English speaking, not Spanish. He's wrong, then.

>32 catarina1: I'm glad that you're also reading The Tidal Zone, catarina; I look forward to your comments about it. I've been reading it slowly, mainly during the train ride home. I'm on page 229, so I have barely 100 pages to go; I'll certainly finish it this weekend.

I downloaded several books from the Wellcome Book Prize longlist and the Man Booker International Prize onto my Kindle earlier this morning. I'll probably take only one book with me, as I'll undoubtedly buy plenty in London.

Smart move on avoiding the scone controversy by only using cream!

>33 SandDune: Definitely jam first then cream on my scone (rhyming with Don).



Hmm. No, I definitely like jam on top.

I like Blue Plate Mayonnaise. I discovered it when I came to Alabama and I don't know what I will do when I retire and move away from here. Blue Plate Mayo is one of the great things about the American South.

>34 charl08: Jam first. Otherwise you get cream on the jam knife.

Hmm. Aren't different knives used for cream and jam when having cream tea?

>35 roundballnz: I thought everyone knew jam then cream on scones...

That rule doesn't apply to people from Devon, and right thinking Americans.

Hmmm might have to do some baking when I get back home tomorrow afternoon

Sounds good. What did you have in mind, Alex?

>36 scaifea: Thanks, Amber! I need to visit your new thread as well.

>37 vancouverdeb: please do not sully my scone with jam or cream - just a little bit of butter, please!

I'm fine with that, or with eating them plain if they are relatively moist, as I usually do.

>39 Carmenere: I love tuna! My friends, particularly the ones who lived directly across the street from us, made tuna salad sandwiches at least 3-4 times per day as afternoon snacks when we were in high school. I haven't used tuna in a recipe in many many years, possibly not since I moved from Pittsburgh to Atlanta in 1997, but I'll use it much more often in this recipe, and others. We're finished with hospital rounds, but I'll hold out until I finish catching up here before I have more avocado tuna salad for lunch.

Another rule for this thread: Fish, in all forms, including shellfish, is a Food of the Gods.

Hi Darryl.

It's another tough day in the news and your thread is a bright spot. I've copied out the recipe for Avocado Tuna Salad and will be making it this weekend.

And I'm wondering how We Are All Moors is going.

I'm reading and thoroughly enjoying My Name is Asher Lev.

I hope you're doing well.

>40 drneutron: Mayo vs Miracle Whip may blow up the thread.

Nah. Everyone here is intelligent, and all intelligent people choose mayonnaise over Miracle Whip. ;-)

Oh, and not just mayo, but Duke's mayo.

I've heard of Duke's, but I've never bought it and haven't had it, to my knowledge. I'm a Hellman's guy, but I'm not wedded to the brand and could accept that there are better ones out there. I'll have to give it a try; I don't use much mayonnaise, though, and I just bought a bottle of Hellman's last week, so it will be a good while before I'm ready for more.

>41 streamsong: The avocado tuna salad is amazingly good, Janet. Prue Gallagher made it this week, and the senior resident I'm working with on the teaching service made it for her and her fiancée last night. Chelsea's partner is vegan, so she made it using chickpeas in place of tuna. I think that vegetarians could also substitute hard boiled eggs for tuna. Sara, one of my favorite partners, plans to make it tonight, and several others will likely do so this weekend. Even my partner, Tracy, who doesn't cook at all, wants to give it a try.

>42 PaulCranswick: Ha! I knew that, Paul; I was just pulling your leg.

>43 torontoc: Thanks, Cyrel! The tuna avocado salad recipe is about to go viral in my group, and it certainly deserves to. I need to post a comment on http://natashaskitchen.com/ to let her know!

>44 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita; I certainly will!

I'll also use this time to make definitive plans for my vacation in June; as usual I'll be off for the entire month.

>45 kidzdoc: I've heard good things about Blue Plate Mayonnaise, but I haven't purchased it, or tried it, to my knowledge. I'd definitely like to give it a try, as I would imagine that Publix sells it. Checking...yes; my local Publix (Ansley Mall) does sell both Blue Plate and Duke's.

>19 kidzdoc: I'm sure you're going to have a great time. We're thinking about 2-4 weeks in London next year. I would love that. I'm waiting on a new passport too. Mine expires in June and no international plans until fall so I didn't do expedited. I mailed my application on March 11, we'll see how long it takes.

I've often heard cream tea referred to as "Devon Cream Tea" but never as "Cornish Cream Tea" so perhaps that should be taken into consideration in the "who's on top?" debate?
Now, to really upset folks...for most things I prefer mayonnaise but I like the tangier taste of Miracle Whip for egg salad and deviled eggs (although I rarely have it in the house and usually end up using mayo by default).

Happy new one, Darryl. Your thread makes me hungry.

Hiya, Darryl. We don't need much on our old request; just a few highlights from your POV would be great. We've already filled a good bit of our schedule, but know you love it there.

>45 kidzdoc: I can't actually remember what I normally do with my cream tea, except eat it! I expect it depends on my mood Darryl.

I went to see I Am Not Your Negro and was very impressed with it. A fine piece of work. I shall probably see it again.

>54 Caroline_McElwee: - I read the book but am going to try to see the film next week. Good to hear that it lived up to the hype. Did you catch the link I posted for Darryl in his previous thread to a local interview with the director, Raoul Peck? It was an excellent interview.

I can't imagine cream on scones. That sounds as awful as brown sugar on porridge. I make scones weekly, and serve/eat them right out of the oven with lots of butter. I put just butter on the top half, and butter and jam on the bottom. They are definitely gone scones in this household.

The Stone of Scone I am told is pronounced like tone, but then it is a controversial stone anyway!

Happy weekend, Darryl!

I am very interested in seeing your thoughts on We Are All Moors.

>56 SassyLassy: Think of clotted cream/Devon cream as light whipped butter - it's actually lower fat, though it tastes richer (to me, at least). It's the same thing, butterfat (milk fat), after all. Butter on scones is delicious, but cream is fantastic. Note that this is _not_ American whipped cream, which somehow manages to be largely tasteless (even the real stuff), despite being (again) basically butterfat.

It never occurred to me to put the cream on top of the jam - nor did I notice anyone doing it that way when I was living in London (admittedly, I wasn't paying much attention to anyone _else's_ food when I had a cream tea in front of me!). It's definitely jam on top of butter/peanut butter/any other spread that takes jam, for Americans - so that was how I handled scones. And when I'm not paying attention I say cone but when I think about it I say con - I was convinced somewhere, at some point, that that was the proper pronunciation. Possibly in Ireland?

Happy newish thread, Darryl! I'm not sure I've ever had a scone with jam and cream so have no opinion to add to that. Obviously I have a new experiment ahead of me... The trustees traditionally bring the library employees goodies around the holiday season, and one wife bakes delicious white chocolate raspberry scones that I've had with butter.

I'm late in answering, but while we were neck and neck in our brackets after two rounds, they both fell apart quite quickly. He had Duke making the final, and I had Nova in the Final Four. We each had only one Final Four correct - Gonzaga for me and UNC for him - and once Gonzaga made the final, I won.

The Avocado Tuna Salad looks amazing and I'm definitely going to try it sometime if I can get avocados on sale (I just can't bring myself to pay $2 each...). I tried a pretty delicious chicken & rice recipe this week that was much like I would make anyways, except you cook chopped ginger and garlic in with the rice. I really like the ginger flavor and will try it again.

>58 jjmcgaffey: I agree, clotted cream is not like normal cream at all and definitely goes on the scone before the jam. I love it, haven't had it for a long long while. I might have to make some scones in the coming week.

Texture is more like nutella than anything else.

Ahem. It is not my fault. I grew up with Miracle Whip in the house. Never mayo. This is the middle part of the country at a time when a spoonful of Miracle Whip on top of jello was dessert. Sorry. That's just the way it was.

That said, I have mayo in my refrigerator as an adult, although I often have the type mixed with olive oil.

I am definitely going to try the Avocado Tuna Salad.

I finished a book!!! (Please don't faint.)

Book #7: The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss



My rating:

The latest novel by the brilliant English writer Sarah Moss is set in a contemporary Midlands town and is narrated by Adam, a non-tenured academician who teaches entry level courses at the local university and spends the majority of his time working on a book about the bombing and rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral and tending to the home and his family, his 15 and 8 year old daughters Miriam and Rose, and his wife Emma, an overworked general practitioner for the National Health Service. The family is an ordinary one, until one day tragedy strikes: Miriam goes into sudden cardiorespiratory arrest at school, is successfully resuscitated, and is admitted to hospital for further evaluation. Her mysterious condition places a great strain on every member of the family: Adam's passive-aggressive tendencies, anxieties and insecurities are expressed as verbal darts thrown at his wife; Emma wrestles with her dual roles as a even-keeled clinician and a terrified mother who fears every parent's worst nightmare, that they will outlive their child; Rose feels both unimportant and anxious over her sister's uncertain condition, and displays apparent indifference toward Miriam's plight and makes repeated unreasonable, selfish demands on her parents; and Miriam, a very intelligent, independent minded and defiant teen, who seethes at being admitted to hospital, not having medical decision making capability, and, underneath it all, fears her own mortality.

The family must recover from the lightning bolt from the sky that has altered all of their lives, and adjust to the "new normal", similar to many of the families I see in my role as a pediatric hospitalist whose children are given life altering or life threatening medical diagnoses during their stay in hospital, and to other individuals, families and groups who are stricken by tragedy and must pick themselves up and recover from a sudden shock.

Moss does a fabulous job in portraying these four as very believable, imperfect and sympathetic individuals, and, despite the difference between the British and American health care systems, the experiences Adam, Emma and Miriam had with the NHS rang true as well.

The Tidal Zone is another outstanding effort by one of England's most talented writers, which I liked only slightly less than her brilliant earlier novel Bodies of Light. It was chosen for this year's fabulous Wellcome Book Prize shortlist, and despite the strength of the field, this novel would be a worthy winner of this superb literary award.

Happy Saturday, everyone! I'm now finished with my seven day work stretch, and I won't return to clinical service until May 1. I finally finished The Tidal Zone, and I think I'll get started on How to Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul, my LT Early Reviewer win from February, which I received earlier this week.

>48 EBT1002: Hi, Ellen; I think that every day since Election Day in the US, and arguably since the day after the Brexit vote in June, has been a tough day in the news, although some days, like yesterday, are worse than others.

The avocado tuna salad has gone viral within my group. Lurdeska, he administrative assistant on the Psychiatry service made it on Thursday, along with Chelsea, the senior pediatric resident who I worked alongside this week. Three of my partners saw my recipe on Facebook, and both told me today that they plan to make this salad this weekend. Two of them is vegetarian or vegan, and they also plan to use chickpeas as a substitute for tuna, as Chelsea. I haven't seen my favorite foodie nurses this week, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them decides to try it as well.

I'll post that recipe to The Kitchen, and find other new ones I've made earlier this year and have liked. I'll do more cooking in the next three days before I leave for London on Tuesday night, as I bought a massive bag of fruits and vegetables from a local food co-op that comes to the hospital on Sunday, and I need to use them up to keep them from going to waste. I'll make creamy corn pasta and possibly zucchini fritters tonight or tomorrow; I just finished a late lunch, so I'm not sure that I'll be hungry enough to want anything substantial for dinner.

>50 RebaRelishesReading: That sounds great, Reba! A 2-4 week holiday in London would be ideal. According to https://travel.state.gov, the processing time for routine passport renewals is 6-8 weeks, versus 2-3 weeks for expedited ones, and renewals of less than two weeks, and even the same day, at US State Department run passport agencies, such as the one I went to. Let's see...I visited the Atlanta Passport Agency on Friday of last week, and received my passport by mail the following Wednesday. I can't remember if I mentioned it here or on my Facebook thread, but there was a woman there who needed a renewed passport in order to make a flight that left at 1 pm that day, less than four hours away, and she was apparently able to get her passport in time to make her flight (I saw her leave around 9:45 am, which should have given her plenty of time to board the aircraft).

Millions of Americans, like myself, applied for passports for the first time in 2007, after the State Department declared that Americans traveling to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean would require passport books or cards for re-entry into the US, instead of state driver's licenses. In addition, the next phase of the Real ID Act, which forbids US passengers to use unapproved state driver's licenses for domestic travel, goes into effect in January of next year. Currently four states, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri and Montana are ones whose citizens would be prohibited from using their driver's licenses, and they would need to use alternative form of identification, such as a passport book or card, to be able to fly domestically. In 2020 the final phase of the Real ID Act will be enacted, and residents of the 26 states and US territories that have been granted extensions will also be affected if they don't have acceptable state driver's licenses. Fortunately Georgia is one of the states whose driver's licenses have been deemed acceptable under the Real ID Act, although my license is from 2009, so I'm not completely sure if it's still valid for travel (although I think it is). I always travel with my passport, even if I'm flying domestically, in case I lose my driver's license in the airport. That did happen to me once at SFO (San Francisco International Airport) years ago before I had a passport, although I was returning to Atlanta and didn't need to use it for identification for a return trip. However, my best friend from medical school was in a pickle years ago when he went to a conference in Philadelphia; he lost his driver's license on the trip from Wisconsin, didn't bring his passport with him, and spent several hours in PHL proving his identity before he was allowed to board his flight back home.

One other thing: the new design for US passports will be rolled out later this year, or possibly in early 2018. The new ones were originally supposed to be available in late 2016 or early 2017, which is the main reason that I waited so long to renew my passport. The new design is supposed to have enhanced security features and will be lighter than the currently available one.

U.S. Passport Changes Are Coming: Here’s What You Need to Know

>51 RebaRelishesReading: for most things I prefer mayonnaise but I like the tangier taste of Miracle Whip for egg salad and deviled eggs (although I rarely have it in the house and usually end up using mayo by default)

*gasps, wheezes uses albuterol inhaler, takes deep breaths, better now*

Okay. I suppose an exception shall have to be made in this (and only this) circumstance. Since your default sandwich spread is still mayonnaise you remain a member of the LT intelligentsia, Reba.

>52 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! Hopefully there will be as many book posts as food recipes from now until the end of the year.

>53 jnwelch: Sounds good, Joe. I'll type up a list of my favorite restaurants and sites in and around Barcelona later today or, more likely, tomorrow. I didn't sleep well this past week, and I feel another afternoon nap coming on.

>54 Caroline_McElwee: I'm glad that you liked I Am Not Your Negro, Caroline. I plan to see it while I'm in London next week or the week after.

BTW, Claire's sister Karen will be joining her, you, Bianca and me on Saturday to see The Plague. Her train is scheduled to arrive at Victoria at 12.24, and Claire proposed meeting at the station at 12.30, having lunch at one of the nearby Thai restaurants that you and she mentioned, and proceeding to the Arcola Theatre from there.

>55 jessibud2: Sounds good, Shelley. The three of us will have to compare notes after you and I see I Am Not Your Negro. I just saw that the Ciné Lumière within the Institut Français in South Kensington, a short walk from my hotel near Gloucester Road tube station, will be showing it starting on the 21st, so I may see it there if no one wants to see it with me (but hopefully someone will).

>56 SassyLassy: The clotted cream used for cream tea is fairly similar to butter, Sassy; I'm certain that one of our British friends could explain the difference far better than I could. It's not a typical whipping cream as we would use for pastries or cakes in the US.

Don't tell Sassy, but I always put brown sugar in my oatmeal. TYIA.

>57 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! I hope that you're having a good weekend as well. I haven't looked at We Are All Moors in at least a month, and probably two. I may try to finish it before I leave town on Tuesday.

Clotted cream is only slightly lower in fat than butter - in the UK, it has to be at least 55% fat, with an average of around 64%. In the US, it would be classified as butter because of its fat content. Butter (proper full fat butter made of cow's milk, not margarine, spread or anything like that) is around 80% fat, and single cream usually about 18% fat so it is much, much closer to butter.

It also generally - for true clotted cream - has a 'crust' on top which is fatty, creamy goodness and seems to seal in the wonderful taste. Some people hate the crust, but it is an intrinsic part of clotted cream and it seems wrong when it isn't there.

>62 kidzdoc: That one looks fantastic. Thanks for the review, Darryl!

>58 jjmcgaffey: Butter on scones is delicious, but cream is fantastic.

Exactly! And I agree with you 100% about most American whipped butters being tasteless. I prefer Land O'Lakes' Butter with Canola Oil Spread for breads, bagels and bialys, although I usually use Philadelphia Whipped Cream Cheese for the latter two.

  

It's definitely jam on top of butter/peanut butter/any other spread that takes jam, for Americans - so that was how I handled scones.

Ah. Right you are, Jennifer. That probably explains why jam on top of cream looks normal and highly preferable to me, and cream on jam does not.

>59 bell7: Thanks, Mary! The scones I've had for cream tea in England have been, I think, plain ones, whereas the ones I usually buy and have had here have contained fruit and sometimes frosting, like the white chocolate raspberry scones you mentioned (mmm). I wouldn't put butter/cream or jam on that one!

Well done on your March Madness bracket. I ended up in 227th place out of 370 entries, which is about where I usually finish. Villanova's early exit was a mortal wound to my bracket, and West Virginia's loss to Gonzaga finished me for good. One of my partners would have won if Gonzaga had defeated UNC in the championship game; maybe I'll let her choose my bracket next year.

I just looked at my receipt from Publix, and noticed that the avocados I bought earlier this week also cost $2. Do you have a Sprouts Farmers' Market near you? Two of the women in my group's office staff told me that Sprouts regularly sells avocado for 88¢ each. A new Sprouts opened not far from me last year, but I haven't been to it yet, even though one of them praises it to the heavens.

Could I ask you to post your chicken and rice recipe to your thread or to The Kitchen, if you haven't done so already? I'll post the tuna avocado salad there as well.

I can't remember if I posted a photo of the "Git Yer Ass Up!" open omelette I made last month here. I definitely did so on Facebook, but I don't think I did in my last thread.

>60 avatiakh: I'd be curious to find out if there has ever been a survey to determine if a majority of Britons prefer jam on cream or cream on jam on their scones.

>61 ronincats: I grew up with Miracle Whip in the house. Never mayo. This is the middle part of the country at a time when a spoonful of Miracle Whip on top of jello was dessert.

Please excuse me while I lose my mind entirely for a moment.



Did you say "Miracle Whip on top of jello"?!? O. M. G. I don't have enough Pepto-Bismol or Zofran at home to counteract the intense waves of nausea that are racing through my GI tract at the moment, and I may not eat again until Memorial Day. This, more than anything else, makes me glad that I grew up on the East Coast! ;-)

That said, I have mayo in my refrigerator as an adult, although I often have the type mixed with olive oil.

Yay! I'm glad to hear of your successful recovery from Miracle Whip toxicity, Roni. Mayonnaise with olive oil sounds good to me; I'd be willing to try or buy it.

I hope that you like the avocado tuna salad. I had planned to have the last of it for dinner tonight, but due to my late lunch (salmon burger (plain, no bread or toppings), sautéed spinach with toasted pine nuts, and a banana) I'll wait until tomorrow.

>66 lunacat: Thanks, Jenny! Did I have cream tea with you and Fliss in Cambridge in the past? I remember Fliss being there, and telling me that the clotted cream served to us was not authentic. It didn't have a crust, as I recall, and neither did the one I had with Bianca when we went to the Horniman Museum and Gardens in South London two or three years ago.

Is this what you mean by a crust?



I haven't found clotted cream in Sainsbury's or Tesco. Maybe I'll go to Borough Market sometime next week and see if I can find it there.

>67 alcottacre: You're welcome, Stasia! Unfortunately The Tidal Zone hasn't been published in the US yet; I purchased my copy from the London Review Bookshop this past September.

>58 jjmcgaffey: >65 kidzdoc: I do know clotted cream well (UK/EU passport and all), but to me it is used on strawberry shortcake, where the cake part is lighter than a scone, so the cream compensates. If the scone is made with sweet butter and real milk, it doesn't need the cream.

>58 jjmcgaffey: Con (as in my gone scones) not only in Ireland but also in Scotland and the East Coast of Canada, although it seems to be drifting with catering to Americans.

doc- do you put raisins on your porridge too?!

I'm also a purist with shortbread; no chocolate, nuts, fruit and so on. As my Highlander's Cookbook says The creative cook who feels the recipe is too naked as it stands, and dresses it up with vanilla, eggs, nuts, chocolate chips, or what have you, may be creating something. But is won't be shortbread.

>68 kidzdoc: You can't bake with whipped cream cheese or whipped butter. The density isn't right. I say if you're going to eat butter, eat the real thing (same rationale as using real mayonnaise instead of yucky dreamwhip and other such food science products).

>67 alcottacre: Stacia, I got my copy of The Tidal Zone back in Sept through Amazon, but from a third party seller, possibly Book Depository.

>70 SassyLassy: do you put raisins on your porridge too?!

No!!! Just brown sugar (which I prefer over refined white sugar) and a tsp of butter in my oatmeal for me, thank you. I use plain old fashioned oats, as I highly dislike instant oatmeal, especially with the artificial and real fruits and flavorings.

Oh, wait...I will occasionally put fresh blueberries in my oatmeal in place of brown sugar, but never raisins! I'm more likely to have fruit alongside my oatmeal, as I did this morning, when I had a banana with (not in) my oatmeal.

You can't bake with whipped cream cheese or whipped butter. The density isn't right. I say if you're going to eat butter, eat the real thing

That makes sense. I don't bake, though, or at least not yet. I've never made cakes, breads or sweet pies, as I normally don't have much of a sweet tooth. That's why the four boxes of Girl Scout cookies I bought in February lasted five weeks; my office mate (shown in the following photo with her dwindling supply of Trefoil Girl Scout cookies) would have polished them off in five days.



real mayonnaise instead of yucky dreamwhip and other such food science products

Yes!!!

>71 catarina1: Yep. Amazon does sell The Tidal Zone through third party sellers, including The Book Depository; TBD is currently selling this book to US customers for £10.45 ($13.02 US) with free delivery to the US, which is cheaper than the £12.99 list price I paid when I bought it in London last year.

I have no idea why The Tidal Zone wasn't chosen for last year's Booker Prize longlist; it's certainly a far better written and more complex novel than Eileen, Hot Milk and most (and arguably all) of the books that were chosen for it. I was also disappointed that it wasn't chosen for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction longlist, although I haven't been following that prize lately and can't comment on this year's offerings.

Now that I think about it, if The Tidal Zone had been chosen for the Booker Prize longlist last year I would have ranked it first or second, alongside Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves and ahead of His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.

Morning, Darryl!

I made Orange and Raisin Scones this morning, but we have ours with just butter, I'm afraid. I've been known to have butter and jam when I make plain scones, though.

>73 scaifea: Good morning, Amber! Orange and raisin scones sound delightful. I agree, no jam is needed for those, or any others that are made with fruit. Butter on plain scones is fine, butter and jam is better, but cream (which I doubt we can readily find in the US) and jam is delightful.

>64 kidzdoc: LOL Like Roni I grew up in a household where it was always Miracle Whip rather than mayonnaise (in my case because it was less expensive). When I got my own place I started using only mayo and then found I missed the "tang" of M.W. in those two limited dishes and now sometimes buy a little jar for that purpose.

>63 kidzdoc: With passport expiring this year you can tell I was one of those caught in the mess of 2007. I applied for my passport 3 months before a trip that was planned and finally, a few days before departure, had to drive up to L.A. to get expedited processing in person. Spent the night at a hotel, was in line early the next morning and left there with passport in hand in the late afternoon. They told me in L.A. that it a new one had been mailed but I didn't want to risk it not getting to me on time so took the option of them canceling the one that was on the way. Of course, I got home to find the now-cancelled one in my mailbox.

Julia Child thought that everyone should make their own mayonnaise.

I have never tried it, but was thinking that next week might be a good time to do so. Easter is the time of new beginnings so why not start with homemade mayonnaise?

Many cookbooks say that it is not hard to make, so I just might try it.

True, I mostly eat scones with butter here in the US, if only because (proper) cream is hard to find. And yes, there are major differences between British scones and what's sold (and usually made) as scones in the US - Cook's Illustrated did an article about it, actually. https://www.cooksillustrated.com/features/8521-the-difference-between-british-an...

I actually prefer plain(ish) scones, in either format - a bit of flavoring maybe (vanilla, cinnamon, OR ginger), maybe currants or...I like raisins, but they seem overkill in a scone. And yes, American-style scones tend towards having a bit of everything in them! They generally seem a bit much to me. Great as an alternative to a cookie or a doughnut, but not cream tea appropriate.

I eat my oatmeal with, at minimum, raisins. They're my sweetener - no sugar, just raisins. And nowadays I usually add fresh blueberries and strawberries as well, and cinnamon. But oatmeal without raisins is just too bland for me, even (what I usually eat) steel-cut oats. Old-fashioned is good too (with raisins) - I do actually eat instant oatmeal from time to time, just because it's a great breakfast when I'm traveling and staying in a hotel. They do sell unflavored instant oatmeal in packets - it's not all that easy to find (though it's becoming more common), but it makes such a good breakfast I hunt it out. And eat it with raisins.

I go to SF cons once or twice a year, and stay in a hotel for 4-5 days - I can't afford (financially or health-wise) to eat in restaurants three meals a day, the food that's available at the con tends towards the excessively rich for me, and starting the day with a nice solid oatmeal-and-raisins (and milk) breakfast keeps everything on an even keel. Hmmm, I've started eating yogurt quite a lot this year - I think I'll bring a few jars of that (homemade) to the con next month. I usually end the con with some digestive upset, I'll see if the yogurt helps. The sweetened, fruit-filled stuff that's usually available tastes great but it's not _yogurt_ (like flavored instant oatmeal!).

I don't eat mayo or any of the variants, given the option. I use (homemade) pesto as glue for things like tuna salad - never tried it in deviled eggs, though. Hmmm. Well, I don't make deviled eggs much, anyway. Pesto as a bread spread, too. Mayo is a requirement in a BLT, though - but when I get one I usually ask for them to go light on the mayo (carefully! I once got a full load of diet mayo when I asked for that a little too casually...yuck).

I'm going to take a closer look at your salad, Darryl - I actively detest cucumbers, so I sort of skipped over it. But it may be possible to make a variant that I'll enjoy. And for whatever reason, I'm now craving chickpeas in such a salad - I've had them thus a time or two and liked them.

>59 bell7: The rice with ginger and garlic sounds fantastic - three things I love. Please do post your recipe!

>68 kidzdoc: After that reaction I guess I shouldn't mention that I also grew up with Miracle Whip? I had a good reason though! Mayo is made with eggs and I was highly allergic to them as a kid. Am I forgiven? I hope you are still able to eat after reading this. ; )

Not that I have any overseas plans at the moment, but thanks for the reminder to get on my passport renewal.

Enjoy waking up when you want to tomorrow!! Yay for time off.

>68 kidzdoc: I am convinced that the mayonnaise we are currently buying is whipped. It is certainly delicious, but I have never come across such a light product. I guess by whipping it, it means they can sell a jar for less than what it actually looks like in it.

"Miracle Whip on top of jello"?!? O. M. G. I don't have enough Pepto-Bismol or Zofran at home to counteract the intense waves of nausea that are racing through my GI tract at the moment, and I may not eat again until Memorial Day.
LOL!!! Is miracle whip cream in a can? I.e., air and oil drizzle with flavouring....Ew.

We have real cream and real butter in our house, good old fashioned actual cream and actual butter. I'm convinced that it isn't the fat in food that is going to kill us, it is the fake processed food with all the other stuff in them.

Late to the party, but Happy New Thread Daryl! Looking forward to reading about your April adventures.

>75 RebaRelishesReading: I suspect that preferences for Miracle Whip vs mayonnaise, Hellman's or otherwise, has much to do with what part of the country you grew up in. I'm curious to find out more, but I'll bet that people from the Northeast, particularly the NYC area where I grew up, preferentially use Hellman's mayonnaise over other sandwich spreads. I don't think I had heard of Miracle Whip until we moved to suburban Philadelphia when I was a teenager, and because I grew up with Hellman's being the norm, Miracle Whip tasted (and still does) like an overly sweetened, unpleasantly tangy poor substitute.

Ah. Hellman's is a local product to New Yorkers, as Richard Hellman emigrated from Germany to NYC and began selling the product in the early 20th century. Miracle Whip first appeared publicly at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1933, and it was marketed as a lower cost alternative to mayonnaise during the Great Depression, initially to Midwesterners.

I made my first trip abroad in 2007, and I obtained my first passport at that time. However, given the changes that happened that year I probably would have obtained a passport anyway. That year my passport arrived only 1-2 days before my flight to London left, even though I had applied in plenty of time, so I was starting to sweat bullets until I had confirmation from USPS that it was en route.

I suspect that this year will be a very heavy one for new and renewed passports, because of the surge in passports that took pace in 2007 but also, as I mentioned on my Facebook timeline, the installlation of the next phase of the Real ID Act. There 26 states and US terrorities whose drivers' license are not in compliance with the Act, and as of January 22, 2018 those individuals who possess these driver's license will no longer be able to use them as an acceptable form of identification for domestic airline travel. The states at greatest risk initially are Maine, Minnesota, Missouri and Montana, as those states did not receive extensions for their licenses as other states such as Pennsylvania and South Carolina did, and unless their state legislatures issue new icenses to their residents the majority will need to obtain passports in order to board a domestic flight. Current drivers' licenses in those other states will become invalid in January 2020.

Georgia's drivers' licenses are in compliance with the Real ID Act. However, I found out yesterday that my driver's license, which I obtained in 2009 and isn't set to expire until 2019, does not have a Secure ID star on it, and therefore is not Reall ID compliant. So, I will be unable to use it for domestic travel starting on January 22, 2018. I'll get a new license in late April or May.

>76 benitastrnad: That sounds good, Benita. Do let us know if you do decide to make mayonnaise from scratch. I don't think I use enough of it to justify making it myself, though.

>77 jjmcgaffey: Thanks for posting a link to that article about scones, Jennifer; I'll llook at it later this week.

There is certainly a difference between British and most American scones. Then again, there are significant differences between scones in this country! I admittedly don't have them often, on either side of the pond, and I've only had cream tea two or three times in the UK, despite my frequent trips there. I do like fruit scones, such as cranberry orange or white chocolate raspberry, but I would inisist on plain scones with cream and jam for cream tea.

I usually go to one medical convention every year, which are generally held in large convention centers in downtown areas of major cities. As a result, there are usually plenty of food options, within the convention center and nearby restaurants that cater to convention attendees. It does help that I can get reimbursed for the costs of meals if I want to, although unlike many of my partners I never do so. These conventions are invariably social and networking events, so we always meet up for lunches and dinners, with current partners, people we went to medical school or residency with, or colleagues who practice at other institutions.

I'm not overly fond of pesto, although I don't dislike it. I rarely buy luncheon meat (I think the last time I did so was early last f), and don't make salads that call for mayonnaise, so I rarely use it, as I mentioned above. The same goes for mustard and ketchup.

That avocado tuna salad looks to be adaptable. The senior resident and one of my partners each used chickpeas as a substitute for tuna, and they and their partners/families loved it. I like cucumbers, so this recipe is perfect for me as is.

>78 Berly: I thought that Miracle Whip was made with dried eggs, Kim!

I did wake up early today, as I have a maintenance appointment for my BMW X3 SUV at the dealer that I bought it from in Decatur, just east of Atlanta. I'm typing this at the coffee bar at the dealer now, and my vehicle should be ready in about an hour.

>79 LovingLit: I am convinced that the mayonnaise we are currently buying is whipped.

I thought that all mayonnaise was whipped (at least the American version of it). Hellman's does sell a light mayonnaise, which tastes as if someone diluted two parts of regular mayonnaise with one or two parts of water (ick).

To me, Miracle Whip tastes like diluted mayonnaise, to which is added sugar and a bit of ketchup. I struggle to eat anything that contains anything but a tiny bit of it, and I would refuse to eat a sandwich that uses it as a spread.

I'm convinced that it isn't the fat in food that is going to kill us, it is the fake processed food with all the other stuff in them.

I agree completely!

>80 tangledthread: Thanks, tangledthread! I leave for London tomorrow night, and, God willing, will arrive there late the following morning. I'll be much more active on LT starting on Wednesday, and will post photos and descriptions of my activities there. I love reading about others' vacations, including Erik's recent posts about his family's vacation to Costa Rica last week, and hopefully my travel posts are at least of some interest.

>81 kidzdoc: Don't know what to say! I could eat MW but not Mayo. Maybe MW has less eggs than Mayo. As a kid I could do one egg in a cake for sure, two was ok, three was a benadryl and four was a hospital visit. And no egg by itself.

Hope the beamer is ready to go. Side note: I checked to see whether is was supposed to be "Beamer" or Beeemer" only to find that it was "Bimmer"!!

"BMW got its start with motorcycles. They were big on the race track, and BMW's biggest competitor was BSA Bikes. The initials became cumbersome to say, especially since they were so close to each other, so enthusiasts of the track developed a slang for them. BMW's were referred to as beamers while the BSA's were referred to as beesers. When the first BMW cars came out, those same enthusiasts decided that the car couldn't have the same slang as the motorcycle, so the proper slang to help differentiate the car and the motorcycle was bimmer instead of beamer. However, in time, people began using beamer to reference both."

>83 Berly: Interesting! I've heard "beemer" said most often in the US, and have never heard "bimmer". I just say "BMW".

I have a few errands to run today after I leave here: I'll pick up my new glasses from LensCrafters, get a package from the UPS store (new slacks and shoes from Dockers.com), get a hair cut, pick up a few items from Publix, and get lunch.

We didn't eat much Jello in my house as a kid (as an adult it is basically never eaten) but I do remember "church suppers" where Jello salads based on lime Jello or the like had something white on them -- MW or mayo, don't know which. It's not a pleasant memory.
As to oatmeal -- only steel cut, please and with chopped nuts, and dried cranberries (I find raisins way too sweet). One of my favorite breakfasts.

Ah, church suppers. Where else can adults come together to break bread (and possibly a few teeth) on some truly horrific food? I loved the Lutheran church I went to as a child, but those dinners were often inedible, and I don't miss them at all.

The Miracle Whip on jello concoction sounds like a recipe from one of those recent scary food books:



Steel cut oatmeal with chopped nuts and dried cranberries sounds perfect.

ETA: I can't think of the last time that I had jello, allthough I think it was the first thing I was allowed to take after my appendectomy in 2017 1997. That's probably the only time I've had it in 40 years or more.

>81 kidzdoc: Interesting that you didn't get your passport until so recently. You have become quite the traveler very quickly.

Any kind of mayonnaise/miracle whip (never tasted it and don't think I want to) and jelly sounds horrendous. Nope nope nope.

I'm starting to think I just need to avoid this thread completely until the nice food returns!

>86 kidzdoc: "after my appendectomy in 2017"...??... What did I miss, Darryl?

Never heard of Miracle Whip before this tread, I am not sure if your mayonaise is the same thing we call mayonaise over here. Long time ago that I ate any mayonaise, before I quit that I used to like yogonaise ;-)

"The primary ingredients are water, soybean oil, vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, modified corn starch, and dried eggs. The HFCS and corn starch are made from non-genetically modified maize.7 Ingredients making up less than 2% of product include salt, mustard flour, paprika, spice, natural flavor, potassium sorbate, enzyme modified egg yolk, and dried garlic."

Well, fortunately I don't eat either Jello OR Miracle Whip any more. Talk about an artificial product!!

When I came back to the US, I could not stand the mayonnaise. I have since mostly resigned myself to it, but ick. It's the whipped texture and overall blandness that do me in. Once we move, making our own mayonnaise is going on the agenda right away.

>79 LovingLit: NZ has recently gone back to 10 yr passports after a decade or so of 5yr passports. Mine expires this year and I'm looking forward to having a new one for 10 yrs.

Growing upon a dairy farm, we always had butter.
Salad dressing - my mother used to do the kiwi traditional salad dressing using sweetened condensed milk, malt vinegar, salt and mustard powder.
https://www.cleverliving.nz/recipe/traditional-kiwi-salad-dressing/

>91 ursula: I also make my own mayonnaise, have never liked the store bought stuff. Once in a blue moon when we have walnuts and craving for waldorf salad the mayonnaise gets made.

Happy Tuesday, Darryl. When will you be leaving for London?

Safe travels Darryl. I look forward to getting some tips on what to visit next time I'm in London.

>87 Oberon: Right, Erik. I didn't have time and couldn't have afforded to travel until I finished residency in 2000. For that matter I had only taken one true vacation by myself before then, when I spent a few days in San Francisco at the end of my intern year in 1998. Other than that holiday all of my travels before then were limited to trips to Philadelphia, NYC and Washington to visit family, and short journeys for medical school and residency interviews. I guess I'm making up for lost time.

>88 lunacat: It's a shame that we won't meet up this month, Jenny. I would have gladly purchased a jar of Miracle Whip and brought it for you to try. As I recall, you like sickeningly sweet artificially flavored American cereals, so I have no doubt that you would enjoy a sickeningly sweet artificially flavored American sandwich spread just as much.

>88 lunacat: I'm starting to think I just need to avoid this thread completely until the nice food returns!

This is my photo of the very nice salmon and shrimp étouffée that I had for lunch at Louisiana Bistreaux yesterday:



And here are the zucchini fritters that I made on Sunday night:



>89 FAMeulstee: Whoops. Sorry, Anita. I had appendicitis in 1997, not 2017!

The mayonnaise I've tasted in Europe, especially on pommes frites, was considerably thicker and a bit more flavorful than Hellman's mayonnaise.

>90 ronincats: Yep. That sounds perfectly awful, and very artificial. I've never purchased Miracle Whip, and I seriously doubt that I ever will.

>91 ursula: If thee was a recipe for mayonnaise that would allow me to make a small amount (a pint), I would consider giving it a try.

>92 avatiakh: I'm glad that I have a new passport, as the main page on my old one was crinkled and was becoming difficult for machines and scanners to read, even though it looked okay.

I'm not fond of most creamy salad dressings, with blue cheese being the one exception, so I won't try Kiwi salad dressing.

>93 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! My flight (Delta 32) leaves at 21:23 Eastern Daylight Time this evening, and arrives at Heathrow at 11:05 am British Summer Time tomorrow.

>94 charl08: Thanks, Charlotte. I'll post messages about my trip every 1-2 days after I arrive.

Mmm, I think I'd like those zucchini fritters!

Safe travels, Darryl and have a great time

So much talk about food here! I'm wondering how important presentation is to all of you?
Many years ago I threw a supper together after work that was fish, boiled potatoes w/parsley & butter, and cauliflower was the only veg that I had available. When I sat down to eat this plate full of white food, I could barely eat it because....well, plate of white food. Neither my husband or son seemed to mind.

Ever since that dinner I plan meals to look pretty and colorful.

eta: btw...colorful with the blend of vegetables, fruits, & herbs. No jello for color here.

>97 jessibud2: The zucchini fritters recipe that Claire gave me is a great one! I had them in mind when I bought a bag of fruits and vegetables from a local co-op that came to the hospital I work at the Sunday before last.

Here's a link to the recipe, in case you or anyone else missed it: Zucchini Fritters

>98 tangledthread: Great observation, tangledthread! Now that you mention it, I would say that the presentation of food, and the colors of the food, are very important to me. I noticed and liked the addition of diced parsley to the shrimp & salmon étouffée I had for lunch yesterday, and I admittedly like the contrast of the bright green of the zucchini, the brown coating of them, and the reddish plate I placed them on. I am very conscious of and do appreciate colors, particularly food, clothing and works of art, although I have no training in it and only a basic knowledge of it.

I would also have had a hard time eating the meal you described! I think I would have had to use hot sauce, for both taste and color, and cilantro or parsley to add color to it, or possibly some red, orange or green vegetables.

Safe travels this evening, Darryl. Look forward to hearing about your trip!

Thanks, Katie! As usual it will be less of a traditional holiday, and more of a trip to visit LT friends and get my fill of plays, museum exhibitions, modern dance, author readings...and books (and maybe a summer fedora or two)!

Good news: I'm flying Delta, not United.

I'll only bring two books with me, along with my Kindle: London Overground by Iain Sinclair, which I hope to finish there and pass on to Bianca or Claire, and Hadriana in My Dreams by René Depestre, my March LT Early Reviewers book for March, which I received yesterday. I was going to bring How to Be a Muslim: An American Story with me, but I thought that might not be the wisest decision if my bag is checked at ATL or LHR for some reason!

>101 kidzdoc: - Good news: I'm flying Delta, not United. Haha. Geez, wasn't that crazy. I heard something on the radio this morning, and who knows if it's for real or just one of the meme things in response but some other airline (can't remember which) has a *new* ad, which says something to the effect of "We will beat our competition. Not our customers." Hehe... ;-p

Thanks for the link to the recipe. I will try it!

Safe journey, Darryl.

>95 kidzdoc: Making up for lost time sounds like a great idea. I was fortunate to travel some with my parents and spent a semester abroad while in college but there was a big gap while in law school and when we first got married. My wife and I traveled to Mexico and France as a young married couple but then there was a pretty sizeable gap when we started having children. We just decided when our third was born that we had postponed travel long enough and have ramped things up since then.

>102 jessibud2: I posted this message about the incident on a United Airlines flight yesterday:

On Sunday evening passengers onboard a United Airlines flight headed to Louisville from Chicago were asked to voluntarily relinquish seats for four airline employees who did not have tickets, and were not paying customers, but "needed" to board the flight, even though the two cities are less than 300 miles apart. After requests by the ground staff and flight crew went unheeded the staff randomly chose four passengers, who were ordered to get off the plane. Three agreed, albeit reluctantly. The fourth was a physician who was scheduled to see patients the following day, and refused to get off, as he would be unable to report for work; the next United flight from Chicago to Louisville was scheduled to depart at 3 pm the following day. Instead of honoring his request and choosing another passenger, United contacted the Chicago Department of Aviation, whose security officers forcibly dragged the physician off of the plane like a common criminal, physically injuring him in the process.

As a frequent flyer (although I rarely take a flight on United) and as a physician I am outraged by this brutal, inhumane and immoral treatment of a colleague by a soulless corporation who obviously has no respect for its customers. This assault could be harmful to this physician's career if United chooses to press charges against him, as medical professionals have to report any arrests, felonies or other charges made against them to their state medical board.

Needless to say I will NEVER fly United Airlines again, and although I am a loyal customer of Delta Air Lines I have no illusion that I and other Delta passengers could never suffer the same fate as this poor man.

#BoycottUnited #FlyingWhileAsian

I imagine that most people have seen the videos and still photos of the man being dragged by his arms from the phone, blood streaming onto his face from his mouth. He was identified today as Dr David Dao, a 69 year old Vietnamese-American internal medicine physician who has a very troubled past, with convictions on drug and sexual offences, according to numerous reports from various media outlets within and outside of the US. His license to practice medicine in Kentucky was suspended from 2005-2015, and he is only allowed to practice in an outpatient facility one day per week.*

Dr Dao probably won't win any Physician of the Year awards before he retires, and based on what I've read I wouldn't want him to be my internist. However, he certainly did not deserve the boorish treatment he received on Sunday, which reminded me of protestors being beaten and dragged by police officers during the Civil Rights Movement.

United is taking an even more brutal beating in social and news media outlets, especially after the two public comments made by its CEO that did not apologize to Dr Dao and blamed him for the incident, and they will almost certainly lose a significant amount of business that will be many fold greater than the amount they could have paid to four passengers to willingly give up their seats for the flight crew that "needed" to travel on that flight.

*This is what I meant when I mentioned that physicians and other advanced practice providers have to be squeaky clean, as information about them is readily available to the general public and can easily and quickly be obtained by anyone without cost; this includes me, although I have nothing to hide (other than my excessive book buying tendencies).

There is a Southwest Airlines meme that is being widely circulated, which reads "We beat our competitors. Not you." The comedian Jimmy Kimmel also featured a fake United Airlines advertisement on his show last night, which was pretty brutal. It will be a very long time before this story is forgotten by the general public.

Do let me know what you think of the zucchini fritters. I just finished the second half of them for lunch. I heated them in my toaster oven, and they tasted delightful. I had the last of the avocado tuna salad for dinner yesterday, and I'll probably make both recipes again shortly after I return to Atlanta on the 26th.

>103 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I'll have at least an hour or two to kill between the time I arrive at Heathrow tomorrow morning and the time I can take the Underground to check into my hotel. I was about to say that I usually have lunch at the Costa Coffee shop outside of Heathrow Terminal 4, but I forgot that Delta flights now arrive at Terminal 3. Regardless, I can't check into my hotel until 2 pm, so I'll still probably have lunch at the airport before I hop on the Piccadilly Line at Terminal 1,2,3 station. My hotel is just across the street from the Piccadilly Line station at Gloucester Road, so it's an easy trip from Heathrow. Heathrow has limited free WiFi, so I'll check in after I sit down for lunch.

>104 Oberon: Good idea, Erik. My younger partners who have kids are envious of my frequent and lengthy trips abroad, and they all look forward to the time when their kids are old enough for them to be able to leave the country on vacation.

Frankly, to me it doesn't matter who this person is unless he was a danger to himself or others on the flight. There's no indication that he was either of those based on the video and reports I've seen. As such, there was no reason for United to call security or for them to treat him that way. It's been a while since I quit flying on United, mainly for customer service reasons, and I'll only fly them now if forced to. It'll be interesting to see if United survives this.

Safe travels, Darryl, enjoy your London trip.

>101 kidzdoc: "Good news: I'm flying Delta, not United" Then I hope Delta won't adopt the United passenger policy ;-)

>105 kidzdoc: - I'm sure you must have heard about the episode that happened to Dave Carroll, a musician from Nova Scotia, back in 2009. United broke his expensive guitar on a flight, then refused to take any responsibilty or compensate him for it. So, the only revenge he could take was to write a song about it and post it to youtube. In fact, he wrote 3 songs about it and got a ton of publicity:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=united+breaks+guitars+youtube&view=deta...

Could this doctor sue United? I mean, regardless of his past, what they did to him can't possibly be lawful. It's basically assault, how can it be anything else?

>105 kidzdoc: Darryl, I was outraged when I saw the footage, I hope HE sues the pants off of those who treated him with such distain. He had a legitimate reason for not offering his seat. The whole thing sucks.

Happy travels.

re: The white dinner - yeah, well....working Mom in grad school. (No Blue Apron in those days....) I used what was in the house that night, but it has never happened a second time!

I've never liked eating from plates that have pictures on them, which must be an extension of the need for good presentation.

ETA...BTW am reading and loving Miss Jane: a novel. I think I may have picked up that recommendation on this thread. Thanks for that!

Darryl--I am off to tonight to hear Siddhartha Mukherjee speak. He is the author of The Gene: An Intimate History and won the Pulitzer for his book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. Taking my daughter with me--she was a Human Physiology major at U of O and is currently working up at OHSU. Should be good.

Glad you are on a "safe" airline. Wising you fun in London!

Lucky you!!

The trouble with the United thing is that it's not always easy to boycott an airline. If your nearest airport is their hub, your choices are seriously limited. I lived in Philadelphia and essentially if you didn't want to fly US Air you were out of luck. I know you have the same issue with Delta at Atlanta. I'm afraid that United will be able to get away with this and their generally terrible customer service due to the lack of choice that so many flyers face.

I hope you have had a very pleasant flight by the time you read this, and will be getting settled into your hotel soon. I'm sure there is a Costa or equivalent at all the Heathrow terminals so you should be fine for breakfast.

Glad to see you've landed safely, and hope you have a marvelous time in London.

Hello from London! My flight arrived safely (and early) about 1-1/2 hours ago. The flight was uneventful, and even though it was a full flight from ATL to LHR no doctors were beaten or dragged off of the plane.

It's just past noon British Summer Time, and I'm having a pleasant and leisurely lunch at a Caffè Nero in Heathrow Terminal 3, as I can't check into my hotel unti 2 pm. I'll stay here for another hour or so, then take the Piccadilly Line (London Underground) from Terminal 1,2 & 3 station to Gloucester. Road station; my notel is just across the street from the station.

>106 drneutron: Right, Jim. The mention of the doctor's past problems has nothing to do with Sunday night's incident, and it seems like a bit of character assassination by the media in order to garner headlines or hits. One of the passengers said that he was talking loudly and waving his arms in protest before he was dragged off of the plane, but that hardly seems to justify the brutal treatment he received.

United's CEO, Oscar Muñoz, fanned the flames of outrage by his public statements on Monday, as I'm sure that many people have read about. He was much more apologetic and contrite on Tuesday, but that was way too late, and IMO seemed quite insincere. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but Muñoz will be lucky if the Board of Directors doesn't replace him soon.

>107 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. Delta, at least in my experience, is a much friendlier and more courteous airline than United is. Delta has always been based in Atlanta, and most of its employees display a hospitality that is characteristic of the Deep South. I've found the employees of Chicago based United Airlines to be more tight lipped and curt, and I certainly wouldn't call them friendly when taken as a whole.

>108 jessibud2: I hadn't heard of that incident, Shelley. That is shameful!

I think that physician has sufficient grounds to file a lawsuit against United and the Chicago Department of Aviation for that assault, and I would be surprised if he didn't seek remuneration for that incident. Then again, I suspect that United will want to get this story out of the spotlight ASAP, and that they will settle out of court to avoid further media coverage.

>109 Caroline_McElwee: That incident was completely inhumane, callous and shameful. United has a bad reputation for customer service, and this incident will likely prove to be the last straw for thousands of its former customers.

>110 tangledthread: No Blue Apron in those days

Ha! Several of my partners (married women with young children) rely heavily on Blue Apron or similar services, including my Girl Scout cookie addicted partner who shares an office space with me.

I don't mind plates that have designs on them, but there are some that are too "noisy" for me as well.

>111 Berly: Excellent, Kim! I look forward to your comments about Siddharta Mukherjee's talk. I'll see him on April 23rd, as he, Sarah Moss and the brother of the late Paul Kalanithi will speak at the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch here in London, one day before the prize ceremony.

>112 tangledthread: Very true. I'm both glad and fortunate to be able to spend a two week holiday in London.

>113 Sakerfalcon: The trouble with the United thing is that it's not always easy to boycott an airline. If your nearest airport is their hub, your choices are seriously limited.

Very true, Claire. I'm fortunate that I like Delta, as my travel options would be significantly limited if I didn't. Since ATL is the world's busiest airport I would probably be able to use other carriers, but it wouldn't be as easy or convenient. Delta offers at least three daily flights from ATL to LHR, and its partner Virgin Atlantic has at least two other direct flights, so I rarely have a problem finding a flight to travel here.

The flight was a pleasant one. I had an exit row seat with plenty of leg room, and my seat mate was a pleasant Colombian woman who works as a nurse in England. We both slept well, as the nearby passengers were all quiet and well behaved throughout the flight. We both fell back to sleep after breakfast was served, and we were so comfortable that we each wished that the flight had lasted longer, so that we could have slept more!

Back to Delta's customer service: the leader of the flight crew personally thanked me and other Delta frequent fliers for our service, and encouraged me to ask for her if I had any requests. This has happened before, and I seriously doubt that United's staff extends the same courtesy to its best customers.

This Caffè Nero in Terminal 3 is a comfortable place to sit, similar to the Costa Coffee in Terminal 4. I'll be even more comfortable when I can check into my hotel and take a nice long nap.

>114 lunacat: Thanks, Jenny! I hope that you and your guy have a splendid time in Andalucía next week.

>116 kidzdoc: - I'll see him on April 23rd, as he, Sarah Moss and the brother of the late Paul Kalanithi will speak at the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch here in London, one day before the prize ceremony.

Wow, that would be something! I look forward to your impressions. Sounds like it will be excellent.

Have a great vacation, Darryl!

>115 kidzdoc: One of the passengers said that he was talking loudly and waving his arms in protest before he was dragged off of the plane, but that hardly seems to justify the brutal treatment he received.

Yeah, when I was reading about it, I said to Morgan, "Belligerent and disruptive? You know that if they were taking my seat away on a plane like that I'd be belligerent and disruptive too." It's a situation that calls for it.

>115 kidzdoc: Welcome to London Darryl. Hope the snooze was good. See you Saturday.

My favorite Facebook meme (think it was originally a tweet) about United:

Dragging that doctor off the United flight was the worst thing Obama has ever done.

>117 kidzdoc: Do I remember correctly that Delta is employee owned? If so, that may have something to do with their service.

It's been bugging me where I'd read about Delta recently following reading this discussion - they're mentioned in The Warmth of Other Suns. I was struck by it as I'd not made the connection with the region and the name.

Your Wellcome event sounds perfect given your enthusiasm for their selections, and your own professional expertise. Hope it goes well.

Unfortunately for passengers on all US airlines (Delta included), United did not break any U. S. law. What they did was totally lawful in the U. S. What they did is NOT lawful in EU countries. In the U. S. it does make a difference what company the flight it booked through. For instance, if you hold a KLM ticket and are flying on a Delta airplane, you can not be bumped from your flight. If you take the same flight and have a Delta ticket you can be bumped because a U. S. airline can legally bump U. S. passengers from its flight without their permission. If you have that same flight on a KLM ticket you can't be bumped because it would be illegal for KLM to do so according to EU laws. I don't know if that holds true for a KLM flight from Chicago to Louisville, but it does hold true for a KLM flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam. One web site I read, advised American's to book tickets on the European partners so that they would not have to face what Dr. Dao did.

The following e-books are available today for $3.99. Just follow the link to purchase the books. All of them are Pulitzer Prize winners.

Carry Me Home by Diane McWhorter http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Carry-Me-Home/Diane-McWhorter/978074322648....
John Adams by David McCullough http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/John-Adams/David-McCullough/9780743218290
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/No-Ordinary-Time/Doris-Kearns-Goodwin/9781....
Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Lincoln-at-Gettysburg/Garry-Wills/97814391....

#122
Delta is not employee owned. At one point United was employee owned, but sometime in the middle 2000's it was sold to United Contenital (something something). The company headquarters are in the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago.

>124 benitastrnad: - All that may be true but to drag someone off forcibly and injure him (bloody nose) is tantamount to assault, at least it seems that way to me. Surely there are better ways to deal with a situation, especially if they know they can legally remove someone. Physical force seems to me to be extreme and I think that Dr. Dao would have a case if he chose to sue. Especially if his story (about needing to be where he is going for an appointment) is proven to be true.

All in all, I hope United takes a beating in its reputation for such disgraceful behaviour. Legal or not. If I were American or flying there, I would certainly not fly that airline again.

>116 kidzdoc: Glad you arrived safe and sound. What a great lineup at the Wellcome Book Prize lunch in London!! You will have a great time. I thought Siddhartha Mukherjee was wonderful last night. He is clearly very intelligent yet managed to make genetics easily accessible to the crowd. He posed some serious moral questions about gene manipulation, which the Millennials will be facing in the not too distant future. He was also seriously funny. I would have preferred some more in-depth exploration, but I guess that's why I should read the book! So, I bought both of them. : )

Good morning, everyone! I'll catch up here quickly, and return this evening or tomorrow morning. I'll meet Claire for lunch, go to the bookshop in the Wellcome Collection to purchase books from the Wellcome Book Prize longlist, and see the play Chinglish by David Henry Hwang at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park tonight.

I'm determined to get a lot of reading done these next two weeks, and I did finish A Horse Walks Into a Bar by the Israeli author David Grossman, which I gave 4 stars to. It was a surprising, maddening, but ultimately deeply moving and thought provoking novel narrated by a retired judge in a town in contemporary Israel who receives a call from a childhood friend he has not seen or heard from in over 40 years. This friend, with whom he had a troubled relationship, invites him to see him perform a stand up comedy routine at a local club on his 57th birthday. I don't want to say much more than that for the moment, to avoid spoiling it for anyone who wants to read it, but I would highly recommend it.

Grossman's latest novel was chosen for this year's Man Booker International Prize longlist, and it was a worthy selection. I'll continue my MBIP reading today and start reading Black Moses by the Congolese writer Alain Mabanckou, one of my favorite African authors.

>118 jessibud2: I'm looking forward to attending the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch on April 23, which will be held at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill. I forgot that Maylis de Kerangal, the French author whose novel Mend the Living (US title: The Heart: A Novel) was also chosen for the WBP shortlist, will also be speaking. I enjoyed that book, and I intend to buy The Gene: An Intimate History today, and finish it before I attend the brunch.

>119 ursula: Spot on, Ursula. I would be pissed as hell if I was seated on a plane, told that I had to get off to accomodate employees who suddenly showed up at the gate even though I had to work the next day, and my concerns were ignored by the gate agents and flight crew.

>120 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. Did I mention the plan to meet at Victoria station at 12.30, have lunch nearby at one of the Thai restaurants that you and Claire mentioned, and proceed to the Arcola Theatre from there? I hope that you can join the four of us for lunch.

I just received this week's weekend travel information e-mail from Transport for London, and it looks as though our journey from Victoria to Dalston Junction won't be affected by scheduled maintenance on Saturday.

>121 streamsong: Ha! I like that meme. I loved the United "commercial" that was broadcast on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this week:

https://youtu.be/1Y8HdeHtOJs

"If we say you fly, you fly. If not, tough ****."

>122 RebaRelishesReading: I'm not sure if Delta Air Lines is employee owned or not, but I would suspect not, at least at the current time. I can accept that employees who own a share of the company they work for would have a more vested interest in providing excellent service to its customers. On the other hand, I and my colleagues don't own the hospital system I work for (Children's Healthcare of Atlanta), but I and the vast majority of its employees take great pride in working there, and we want to provide the best care we can to our patients and their families. My bonus is tied into my group's customer service scores from satisfaction surveys sent to parents after hospital discharge, so you could say that I have a financial interest in providing good care, but I don't ever think about those surveys except when they are mentioned during our meetings, and I doubt that anyone else does, either. We work hard to do the best job we can for the kids who fall under our care, and because I work in a service industry I am even more appalled at the callous manner in which United Airlines treats its customers.

>123 charl08: I look forward to attending the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch, especially since I've read three of the books that will be discussed, and should be able to knock out the fourth with little difficulty.

It's nearly 11 am and I should get going, so that I'm not late for lunch. I'll finish catching up this evening or tomorrow morning.

>129 kidzdoc: I'm determined to get a lot of reading done these next two weeks
Good to hear it! Hotels are great places for that. When I went with my mum to Wellington last year I still woke up at 6am (as I do with the kids here at home) and I read gleefully until 8am in the hotel room. It was wonderful!
I hope you enjoy your easy mornings and busy days in London.

>124 benitastrnad: and >127 jessibud2: - There is some question as to whether United violated its own Contract of Carriage, though. Clearly, airlines can deny boarding to passengers for a variety of reasons but it's quite murky to call it "denying boarding" when an individual has been let on the plane and claimed his seat.

Which leads to the question I have had all along - what kind of communications breakdown leads to 4 crew members showing up at the last minute to claim seats on a full plane? Should they not have been at the gate earlier and identified themselves? Shouldn't United operations have alerted the gate agents so that this could have been taken care of before boarding? To me, any way you look at it, United is the problem - whether in their policies, procedures, internal communications, external communications, etc.

>132 katiekrug: - it's quite murky to call it "denying boarding" when an individual has been let on the plane and claimed his seat.. And paid for his ticket in the full expectation that he would get where he intended to go. The whole situation just smells bad.

>132 katiekrug: I know! There's no excuse for the lack of communication and foresight, let alone the grievous bodily injury to the victim! The latest I read is that he suffered a significant concussion and lost two teeth. I am appalled.

Karen O.

>129 kidzdoc: sounds good Darryl, I can do that. We can get a 38 to Dalston. There may be another way to get there on a train to Dalston Junction.

'The Plague' got 4 stars in this evenings Evening Standard, Darryl.

Have a great time in London, Darryl. From the sounds of your last few months at work you deserve it.

Hi Darryl. I hope your London trip is spectacular.

I've added both The Tidal Zone and A Horse Walks into a Bar to the wish list. I would have sworn I had read something by Sarah Moss but I don't seem to have. It sounds like I might want to add Bodies of Light to the list, too.

Have a great time in London!

Hope you're enjoying London!

United has announced that they are now going to require at least an hour notice from employees who need to get onto a flight. Duh!

Happy Saturday, everyone! I've had a great first two full days in London, and today should be just as nice. Four of us (Claire, her sister Karen, Caroline and I) will meet for lunch, and afterward we'll travel to Dalston to see the matinée performance of The Plague at the Arcola Theatre; Bianca will meet us there. I might consider squeezing in an evening play tonight, but I'll probably call it an early night, since I was out late last night and especially because I'll meet an old friend and fellow classmate at Rutgers early on Sunday to spend a day out here.

I met Claire for lunch in Queen Mary's Rose Garden within Regent's Park on Thursday, on a partly sunny and comfortably cool early afternoon, and took these photos while I was there:













After lunch I walked to the nearby , the "free destination for the incurably curious", which "explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future." The collection has free exhibitions, a branch of Blackwell's Bookshop, and a nice café and restaurant. The main purpose of my visit was to purchase the remaining three books from this year's Wellcome Book Prize shortlist, so that I could read at least The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee in advance his appearance at next Sunday's Wellcome Book Prize Brunch:



Mission accomplished.

I thought about seeing one of the new exhibitions after I had yogurt and espresso in the café, but I was starting to fade and decided to call it an early night. I'll return there sometime next week, to see the exhibition and purchase the two or three other Wellcome Book Prize longlisted books that I don't already own. I would love to finish the longlist in advance of the prize ceremony on Monday, but there is no way that will happen.

Yesterday Fliss and I met at the Royal Academy of Arts near Piccadilly Circus to see the exhibition Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932, an examination of the turbulent 15 year period starting from Lenin's ascension to power 100 years ago and ending with Stalin's decree in 1932 that Socialist Realism was the only acceptable expression of art, literature and music for the Soviet Union, which led to the suppression of all non-sanctioned forms of art. The exhibition ends on Monday, and with this being Easter weekend the gallery was very crowded, but it was an excellent and enjoyable experience. No photos were allowed to be taken, which was for the best given how crowded it was yesterday.



Afterward we had a very nice long lunch at The Lighterman, one of the restaurants in Granary Square, the new development behind King's Cross Station that is visually appealing and a major improvement from this formerly decrepit area:

Chinglish, the comedy by David Henry Hwang that opened in Chicago's Goodman Theatre in the summer of 2011 before moving to Broadway in the fall.



Chinglish is a light hearted (and lightweight) comedy about an American businessman from the Midwest who goes to China in an effort to win a contract to make signs for a new cultural arts center in a rising city that wishes to open itself to Western tourists. Similar signs in larger cities were sullied by improper translations from Mandarin to English, or "Chinglish", which proved to be highly embarrassing to local officials. The businessman hires a consultant, an Englishman who has lived there for over a decade, and with his help he submits his proposal to the Minister for Culture, a former Red Army officer, and his very attractive, tough and far more savvy Vice Minister.







Things seem to be going badly for the businessman, until the Vice Minister decides to help him, for personal and professional reasons.

Much of the comedy in Chinglish is based on the differences between Mandarin and English, the difficulty in translating the two languages, and the difference in Eastern and Western culture, which was often funny but occasionally tedious. The acting was good, and the performance as a whole was an enjoyable one, but the script was a bit flimsy and, IMO, stereotypical. I would rate this production of Chinglish 3-1/2 stars, with 3 stars for the script and 4 stars for the acting. It was a worthwhile evening of theatre, but I wouldn't recommend making a special trip to see it.

It's just past 10 am, and since I'll want to leave fairly soon I'll close here for now, and come back this evening. Have a great Saturday, everyone!

>135 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, I was thinking that it would be considerably faster to travel by train than by bus; we could take the Victoria Line to Highbury & Islington, and transfer to a London Overground train from there to Dalston Junction. The 38 bus is one of the very few Transport for London buses that I'm somewhat familiar with, as I take it whenever I get a hair cut at a barbershop on Balls Pond Road. I looked at the Tube Map app on my mobile phone, which has a route planner and shows this weekend's planned line closures. According to the app, the trip from Victoria to Dalston Junction would take 22 minutes and wouldn't be affected by the line closures, versus 52 minutes if we took the 38 bus. We can see what Claire thinks, but my vote would be to take the train.

ETA: We're planning to meet at the WH Smith in the center of Victoria Station. I'll send you a text message on your mobile phone as well.

>144 DianaNL: Thanks, Diana! I hope that you have a splendid Easter weekend as well.

Sad that we won't get to meet up this time around, Darryl, as I'd love to have seen you, and have you meet the boyfriend, but I'm glad to see you are having a lovely time and hopefully we'll be able to meet up later this year?

Are you still planning to go to the Easter service in Westminster? Things have got back to normal very quickly in London, so I hope you are.

Hi Darryl, wishing you a wonderful Easter weekend.

So far, your trip seems to be going very well. Lovely pics, and I especially love the first one, the stunning gate. Have a great rest of the trip, Darryl

The pictures of Regent's ParkRegent's Park are beautiful, Darryl and I am glad you are having a good time in London.
Sadly the exhibition Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932 is over when we travel to London next month. We saw a similair exhibition 25 years back in the Stedelijk The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932, where Frank and I fell in love with Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Mayakovsky's poetry.

Great photos, Darryl. Those photos of Regent's Park remind me of time spent exploring Hyde Park. I really should plan a trip back but for now I will visit vicariously through your photos. Keep 'em coming and enjoy your visit.

Hi Darryl-- I have The Gene by Mukherjee (signed copy I snagged at his reading here last week) and I want to read I Contain Multitudes. Looks like you are having a great time in London!! Carry on.

Happy Easter, everyone! Five of us (Bianca, Caroline, Claire, her sister Karen, and mysef) spent a splendid afternoon and early evening together yesterday; I posted photos and descriptions on my Facebook timeline, and I'll do so here later today or tomorrow. I'll meet an old friend in a little over an hour; she, her son & I will attend Easter Sunday service, probably at St Pancras Church, have lunch, go on an Easter egg hunt and fair at Horniman Museum & Gardens, and see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey before the two of them return to Paris this evening. I'll check back in later tonight or, most likely, tomorrow.

Happy Sunday, Darryl. I saw the photos on FB. It looks like you have a fabulous time.

I love the Horniman Museum Darryl. Hope you have a good day.

It was lovely catching up yesterday too.

While the man is out at play, i'll post a photograph from yesterday in the Community Garden in Dalston:


Claire, Darryl, Karen (Claire's sister) and Bianca

>155 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for posting!!!

>155 Caroline_McElwee: Nice!

How is our friend Bianca doing?

Happy Easter, Darryl! Hope you have a great day in our favorite city.

>71 catarina1: Thanks for letting me know! I found a copy of the book on Book Depository and promptly ordered it.

Happy Easter, Darryl!

>155 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for sharing, Caroline.
I have met the tree on the left last year and hope to meet you and Bianca someday.

Hi Darryl!

I look forward to it Anita.

Beautiful garden pics, my friend!

Looks like you are enjoying your London visit!

Happy Easter Monday, everyone! Today is a bank holiday in the UK, unlike the US, so many people are off from work. I had a lovely day with my friend and her son, but I crashed shortly after I arrived home back at the hotel. I slept for nearly 12 hours between 7 pm and 10 am; I was sleepy and a bit out of it on Saturday, so I knew that I was overdue for a good night's rest. I hadn't planned to do much today and was going to lie in anyway, so this works perfectly for me. I may go out later today, but I bought supplies at the M&S (Marks & Spencer) in St Pancras station just before Kim and her son Jonathan had to check in for their train back to Paris, so I have enough food and snacks to last me for the next two days should I decide to stay in.

I'll post photos and descriptions of my weekend activities, then catch up with posts on this thread and everyone else's.

We sort of swapped places, Darryl as I flew into Atlanta yesterday and then onto Jacksonville.

Hope you have a great time in the UK. I am back for a week next week so let's see if time allows a meet up.

On Saturday Claire, her sister Karen, Caroline & I met at London Victoria Station, where Karen's train from Brighton terminated. We had a very nice lunch at Rosa's Thai Café, located on Gillingham Street a couple of blocks behind Victoria:



After lunch we traveled on the Underground and Overground to Dalston Junction and met Bianca at the nearby Arcola Theatre, where we saw the excellent interpretation of Albert Camus' classic and timeless novel The Plague:

  

The novel was adapted for the stage by Neil Bartlett, which it was pared down to permit the play to be performed in 85 minutes. The setting is a room in a government building, in which an official inquiry of the malady that struck the town took plague. Five of the town's residents led by Dr Rieux, the protagonist of the novel, answer questions and provide detailed accounts of what they observed and personally experienced, starting from the discovery of the first dead rat and ending with the day that the main gates of the town wall were opened, marking the official end of the plague.





The characters from the novel portrayed in the play would have all been white Frenchmen (pieds noirs) living in the Algeria city of Oran. However, Bartlett chose the black British actress Sara Powell to portray Dr Rieux, and the character of Mr Grand was played by Burt Caesar, a black British actor. Their performances were the most memorable ones for me, although all of the actors were very good. At the conclusion of the play three of the actors returned for a half hour moderated Q&A session, in which members of the audience could ask questions and talk about their opinions of the play, which I found to be enlightening and nearly as enjoyable as the play itself.

>164 PaulCranswick: Excellent, Paul! Yes, I'd love to meet up with you next week; I'm here until the 26th. After I finish up here I'll send you a PM with my plans that are already set, and see if we can arrange a day to meet, either here in London or someplace closer to you.

Bianca was operating on two hours of sleep after her night shift that ended Sunday morning and hadn't had lunch, so we looked for a local place to have an early supper. We noticed that there was a café in the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, on Dalston Lane across the street from Dalston Junction station, so we decided to pay a visit there. Before we entered I took a photo of the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural on the building immediately adjacent to the Garden. It was created in 1985 by Ray Walker as a memorial to the 1983 Hackney Peace Carnival:



The café in the garden didn't serve proper summer fare, so we went to a plaza across the street on the recommendation of Caroline. We said goodbye to Karen beforehand, as she had a ticket to see the Russian Revolution exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts that Fliss and I saw on Friday (the exhibition closes today). After looking at a couple of places we decided to dine at Café Route, a "café/deli/bistro" that draws "inspiration from the Middle East and Mediterranean, whilst keeping a local, dynamic and modern spirit."



The café displayed several very appealing vegetarian salads near the front, and Bianca and I each ordered a four salad plate for £9.99, which were outstanding. My plate had Carrot (Coriander, pomegranate molasses & tahini sauce); Aubergine (Chickpeas, parsley, spring onion, almond flakes, yoghurt & pomegranate seeds); Roasted caulifower (Beetroot juice & pickled red cabbage with roasted almonds & feta cheese); and Roasted butternut squash (Feta cheese, roasted chickpeas, crispy sage, and caramalised onion):



Bianca's salad plate was nearly identical to mine, except that she had Red quinoa (Cannellini beans, roasted red peppers, spring onion & parsley) in place of Carrot:



Caroline's and Claire's meals were also visually appealing, particularly Caroline's grilled halloumi with beetroot hummus:



I think I can speak for everyone in saying that our meals at Café Route were outstanding. This restaurant is quite high on my list of favorites, and since the barbershop I use in London is located within walking distance, on Balls Pond Road, I'll certainly dine here whenever I get my locks shorn. I hadn't planned to get a haircut on this trip, but I may return to Café Route anyway.

Love all the pictures! Thanks for sharing, Darryl!

Here are some photos I took while we were in the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden.

Entrance to the Garden, with Claire on the far right:











My photo of Karen, Caroline, Bianca and Claire in the garden:

Yesterday I spent several hours with Kim and her 6 year old son Jonathan, who are currently on holiday in Paris. We first met when we were students at Rutgers, both majoring in Microbiology, and we dated for several months after graduation, as we were both working in NYC. Although the relationship didn't work out we've remained friends, since we have a lot in common, but this was the first time I've seen her in 15 years.

I met Kim & Jonathan at St Pancras International Station, where Eurostar trains from Paris, Brussels and Marseilles terminate. They missed an earlier train, so we were unable to attend the 10.00 Easter service at St Pancras Cathedral that we had planned to go to. Instead we went to the Southbank Centre Food Market to have an early lunch. This market is one of my favorite places to dine in London, as it features roughly 20-30 different stands that serve fabulous street food from all over the world. Kim had an attractive plate from Ethiopiques, a vegan/vegetarian stand that serves Ethiopian fare (I've tried their tasty food twice before at the market and recommended it to Kim), Jonathan had a "hot dog" (German sausage on a long roll), and I had duck confit with grilled blue cheese, rocket (what we call aragula in the US), chutney, mustard and honey on a toasted brioche roll, along with potato chips with truffle mayonnaise, which was delightful. I didn't take any photos of our food, but this is what that duck confit "burger" looks like:



After lunch we traveled by Underground and Overground to the Horniman Easter Fair at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in the South London neighborhood of Forest Hill, which is a short walk from Forest Hill station. Jonathan had a grand time on the children's rides and made some new friends. We had intended to go on an Easter egg hunt, see the Robot Zoo exhibition at the museum, and have afternoon cream tea at the museum café, but time was getting short and we headed back into central London. We took the Jubilee Line to Westminster, took a few photos of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, then took the 24 bus from Whitehall Street to Leicester Square station, passing by 10 Downing Street and Trafalgar Square, then took a Piccadilly Line train back to St Pancras station, where they boarded a Eurostar train back to Paris.

Here are some photos. I didn't take many, as Kim and I were catching up and chatting nearly constantly!

The Sunken Garden at the Horniman:









Big Ben:



The Houses of Parliament



A photo of Kim, Jonathan & I, taken at St Pancras station just before we parted. I look particularly brain dead in that photo (as compared to my normal comatose appearance) and within two hours my brain completely shut down when I went to sleep in my hotel room:



We had a great day out, and we were grateful that the planned rain held off, save for an occasional and insignificant sprinkle. We'll be in much closer touch from now on, and hopefully we'll be able to meet up when I visit my parents next month.

>167 kidzdoc: I shall definitely be revisiting Route again Darryl.

Glad you had a good day with Kim and her son. It's great when you reconnect with people you still have plenty to say to.

Sounds and looks busy (and good) Darryl. I've been to the Horniman but not seen those beautiful gardens - will have to plan another visit.

Happy to hear you are having a good time, Darryl. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

>170 kidzdoc: I read aloud to Frank your selfcomment about the picture with Kim and Jonathan, we both had to laugh :-)

Great photos, Darryl and you always make the food sound so appetizing!

Hi, Darryl. I love all the photos, but am particularly partial to the one of the ladies in >169 kidzdoc:. Please say hello to all of them for us. I'm glad you got to meet up with Kim and son Jonathan, too.

Oof. I'm just waking up from a long afternoon nap, which means that I've spent 15 of the past 24 hours sleeping. It's nearly 7 pm, so I won't do anything tonight, as I'm still groggy. I can't tell if I have a vira URI (runny nose, sore throat) or a moderate case of allergic rhinitis, as I didn't bring my penlight and can't tell if my nasal turbinates are red (URI) or pale and boggy (allergic rhinitis), as they can feel similar. If I had to guess I would go with allergic rhinitis.

Catching up...

>132 katiekrug: United Airlines may have been within its rights to remove Dr Dao from that flight. However, its decision to do so, the reasons for removing those four passengers, and the brutal treatment that Dr Dao received were inhumane, injurious to Dr Dao, and severely damaging to the airline and its reputation. I'm sure that you and most of the rest of us have seen that United has changed its poiicy to avoid a similar occurrence in the future, although I also read this morning that a couple engaged to be married was escorted off of a half full United flight in the past day or two.

Regardless of whether United was within its rights or not, the company's reputation has taken a severe hit, and thousands if not millions of us who fly regularly will either choose not to fly with them in the immediate future, or will at least think twice before doing so. I have a United MileaguePlus frequent flier account, but I hardly ever use United and wouldn't be considered as a valuable customer. I have little reason to fly United, thanks to Delta Air Lines' prominence at ATL, but I won't do so as long as the current CEO and management team remain in place.

To me, any way you look at it, United is the problem - whether in their policies, procedures, internal communications, external communications, etc.

Exactly. United may have been within its rights in the way that the situation was handled, but they are dead wrong in the manner that they did so, starting from the initial decision to allow the fight flight attendants to board the aircraft and kick off paying passengers who were already seated, and ending with CEO Oscar Muñoz's pathetic and inflammatory initial response to the incident. I doubt that any of us will soon forget this story and its aftermath, and United's reputation has been severely, if not irredeemably, sullied as a result of it.

>133 jessibud2: The whole situation just smells bad.

Yep. This is a textbook case of how not to handle a customer dispute, for airlines and any other customer service industry, and I'm sure that this case will be taught in business and management schools in the foreseeable future. It's ironic and laughable that PR Week last month chose United's CEO Oscar Muñoz as its Communicator of the Year for 2016. I imagine that the publication is redfaced over this decision, and wishes that it could revoke this award.

>134 klobrien2: We are all appalled by Dr Dao's treatment, even if he had only suffered the embarrassment of being dragged off of a plane without the firestorm that resulted from it, and the injuries that he suffered. That incident pushes a lot of buttons for me, and I am very angry that Dr Dao was treated worse than a dog would have been (and, yes, I'll admit to being particularly indignant that a physician was treated that way). I won't ever forget this episode, and I'll always associate United Airlines with it.

>135 Caroline_McElwee:, >136 Caroline_McElwee: I think that The Plague deserved a 4 star rating; how about you?

>137 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. Yes, I would say that I deserve this long vacation, and a few people I work with said that they felt the same way.

>138 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen. Yes, it's been a great trip so far, and I still have eight full days left before I return to ATL on the 26th.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to write a review for A Horse Walks Into a Bar. Now that I've loved the two books by Sarah Moss that I've read, Bodies of Light and The Tidal Zone, and heard good things about her other books, I've added her to my list of most favorite authors and I'll read everything that she's written and will write in the future.

>139 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle!

>140 tymfos: United has announced that they are now going to require at least an hour notice from employees who need to get onto a flight. Duh!

Duh, indeed. That announcement is too little, and way too late. United's reputation has been irrevocably damaged, IMO, and I doubt that many customers trust or would be willing to stand behind the company, in the way that I and others trust and stand behind Delta.

>144 DianaNL: Thanks, Diana! I hope that you had a lovely Easter weekend as well. Fortunately the wing of my hotel has been particularly quiet today, as I imagine that a good number of its occupants checked out this morning, so I was able to sleep much better last night and this afternoon than I had been able to this past week.

>146 lunacat: Thanks, Jenny. I should be able to return to London after my week's stay in Edinburgh for the Festival in the second half of August, and hopefully we can meet up then.

Kim & I had originally planned to go to the 10.00 service at St Pancras Cathedral yesterday. However, she & Jonathan missed the 9 o'clock Eurostar train from Paris to London, so they took the next train, which arrived too late to attend services at St Pancras, Westminster Abbey, or Southwark Cathedral, as Claire had recommended. Even though our day was somewhat shortened it was still an immensely enjoyable one, which allowed us to rekindle and strengthen our friendship.

>147 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I can say without question that this was the best Easter weekend I've ever had. I hope that you had a lovely weekend as well.

>148 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley!

Glad you're having a great time Darryl. We've just got back from Cyprus, so currently feeling very tired

>178 kidzdoc: Thank you Darryl for accepting me as a Facebook friend even if I did ask for it in order to see Caroline's picture. I enjoy your posts in Librarything .

>149 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. I'll take more photos in Regent's Park next week.

The exhibition at the Royal Academy of the Arts will end tonight, unfortunately. As you might imagine, Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Mayakovsky were prominently represented in this exhibition. I'll probably buy the museum catalogue, either directly from the RA before I leave London, or from Amazon after I return to Atlanta.

>150 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. I didn't bring the new digital camera I purchased last month, which replaced the one that was stolen from me when I was on holiday in Granada ES last year, as I haven't planned any day trips outside of London or Cambridge. I will take more photos than I have been in the next week, though.

>151 Berly: Will do, Kim!

>153 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I hope that you had a lovely Easter Sunday with your family.

>154 Caroline_McElwee: I'm glad that Bianca took me to the Horniman Museum & Gardens a couple of years ago. Kim sent me a llnk from TimeOut London that listed Easter activities for children this weekend, and the Horniman Easter Fair was prominenty listed. She enjoyed getting away from the bustle of central London, and liked Forest Hill and the museum & gardens.

Yes, it was great to see you on Saturday, and I look forward to seeing you again on the 24th. BTW, Fliss recommended pre-theatre dinner at Baltic Restaurant, as she said that it's close to the Old Vic. Would you be interested in dining there?

>155 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for posting that great photo, Caroline!

>156 Berly: Thanks, Kim!

>157 jnwelch: Bianca looked great, despite her recent stretch of rough work stretches. I'll see her severa times more this coming week.

>158 alcottacre: Happy Easter to you too, Stasia!

I'm so glad your trip is proceeding happily, Darryl. >167 kidzdoc: All that food is just so pretty! Tasty, too, no doubt.

>159 FAMeulstee: Ha! You also met Claire's sister Karen last June, on the lovely day we spent together in Rotterdam. I hope that you can meet several of the UK based LTers when you & Frank visit London next month.

>161 drneutron: Thanks, Jim.

>162 thornton37814: Absolutely, Lori!

>168 alcottacre: You're welcome, Stasia.

>171 Caroline_McElwee: I'm glad that we discovered Café Route, Caroline! I'll certainly return there as well, possibly before I leave London next week.

Yes, it was great to re-connect with Kim yesterday. We last saw each other in March or April 2002, as we spent a nice day in NYC visiting the Cloisters in upper Manhattan, and shed a few tears when we returned to Jersey City and saw the Tribute in Light, the two vertical spotlights that shone upward at the World Trade Center site after 9/11.

>177 kidzdoc: yes Darryl, I agree 4*s for The Plague, l'll probably put the book on the reread list for later this year.

>182 kidzdoc: I've known the Horniman museum since I was a kid. I like how they have kept some of the Victorian quality, as well as modernising. And the aquarium, oh and the dodo.

And the Dulwich Picture Gallery is very nearby, a long time favourite.

Happy to give The Baltic restaurant a go.

>172 charl08: Yes, it's been a busy but fun filled start to my London holiday, Charlotte. I needed a lazy day today, and I don't have anything planned until tomorrow evening, when I'll travel to Cambridge and meet Rachael to see the performance of The Play That Goes Wrong at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.

>173 FAMeulstee: You're welcome, Anita. I normally take lousy staged photos, but that one was particularly bad!

>174 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. I love it when food is visually appealing and tastes good, which was certainly the case for the salad plate I had for dinner on Saturday.

>175 jnwelch: I agree with you, Joe. It helped that I exclaimed "Smile, Bianca!" Just before I took that photo, as all four of them smiled more broadly afterward.

>179 SandDune: Welcome back, Rhian! I saw the photos from the first part of your holiday in Cyprus, but I haven't visited your or anyone else's threads this weekend.

>180 almigwin: Thank you, Myrna! I'll visit your thread as well, probably tomorrow since it's just past 10 pm here.

>185 Caroline_McElwee: I don't think I've visited the Dulwich Picture Gallery yet, although Bianca and Claire have mentioned it several times. The three of us may have gone there last year, after we had brunch at the Duck Egg Café in East Dulwich. Checking...no, apparently not. We did go to a museum that day, but I can't remember which one.

Great! I'm glad that you're interested in going to Baltic next Monday.

I got to attend a Sunday morning mass in the Cologne Cathedral back in 2002 and found it very meaningful to attend in that kind of a setting.

>188 benitastrnad: Nice. I had what I suspect was a simiar experience when I accidentally sat down at the beginning of a morning sevice in the Basílica de Montserrat two years ago. The service was conducted in Catalan, and although I couldn't understand much of it I enjoyed and was moved by the service, and by the congregants near me who made me feel welcome and helped me through the service.

Bianca & I visited the Cologne Cathedral on a Sunday in June 2015, when I was in Amsterdam, athough we didn't see much of it, as we arrived just as a service was starting.

I'm glad to hear that you have such a fabulous time. I had a relaxed weekend filled with lots of reading.
Happy Tuesday, Darryl.

Did you wake up in time to go to Cambridge Darryl?

Happy Wednesday, everyone! The last two days were essentially a blur, as I've done a tremendous amount of sleeping between 7 pm on Sunday and 7 am today; I think I slept for at least 32 of those 60 hours! I came down with what I now think is a viral URI (upper respiratory infection), and that combined with being chronically sleep deprived and taking antihistamines for what I wasn't sure was a URI or an intense case of allergic rhinitis knocked me on my tail during that time. I'm not yet back to 100%, but I'm definitely feeling better than I did at this time yesterday.

I didn't do as much reading as I would have liked, but I would still like to finish The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee before Sunday's Wellcome Book Prize Brunch, so I'll get back to it shortly. I don't have anything planned until tonight, when Paul Harris from Club Read and I will meet to see Arthur Miller's play Incident at Vichy at the Finborough Theatre in Earl's Court, not far from the hotel where I'm currently staying. The Finborough is one of London's most highly regarded pub theatres, which seats 50 people, so this will be a new experience.

>190 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. That was a good four day weekend, which combined plenty of fun and meet ups with much needed relaxation and rest the past two days. I'm glad that your weekend was equally enjoyable.

>191 Caroline_McElwee: Unfortunately I didn't go to Cambridge to see The Play That Goes Wrong with Rachael last night at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, so I'll reimburse her for my ticket. That was our only planned meet up, but we hope to find time to get together in London or Cambridge before I leave next Wednesday.

This year's longlist for the 2017 Best Translated Book Award was announced late last month:

The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette (Egypt, Melville House)

The Young Bride by Alessandro Baricco, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)

Wicked Weeds by Pedro Cabiya, translated from the Spanish by Jessica Powell (Dominican Republic, Mandel Vilar Press)

Chronicle of the Murdered House by Lúcio Cardoso, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson (Brazil, Open Letter Books)

On the Edge by Rafael Chirbes, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, New Directions)

Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Mauritius, Deep Vellum)

Zama by Antonio di Benedetto, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (Argentina, New York Review Books)

A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska, translated from the Macedonian by Christina Kramer (Macedonia, Two Lines Press)

Doomi Golo by Boubacar Boris Diop, translated from the Wolof by Vera Wülfing-Leckie and El Hadji Moustapha Diop (Senegal, Michigan State University Press)

Night Prayers by Santiago Gamboa, translated from the Spanish by Howard Curtis (Colombia, Europa Editions)

Angel of Oblivion by Maja Haderlap, translated from the German by Tess Lewis (Austria, Archipelago Books)

War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans, translated from the Dutch by David McKay (Belgium, Pantheon)

Umami by Laia Jufresa, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (Mexico, Oneworld)

The Last Wolf & Herman by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes and John Batki (Hungary, New Directions)

Oblivion by Sergei Lebedev, translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis (Russia, New Vessel Press)

Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Knopf)

In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano, translated from the French by Chris Clarke (France, New York Review Books)

Ladivine by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (France, Knopf)

Among Strange Victims by Daniel Saldaña París, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)

Moonstone by Sjón, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (Iceland, FSG)

Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (Japan, New Directions)

Vampire in Love by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, New Directions)

My Marriage by Jakob Wassermann, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann (Germany, New York Review Books)

Moshi Moshi by Banana Yoshimoto, translated from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda (Japan, Counterpoint Press)

Super Extra Grande by Yoss, translated from the Spanish by David Frye (Cuba, Restless Books)

The shortlist for the 2017 BTBA for Fiction was announced yesterday:

Wicked Weeds by Pedro Cabiya, translated from the Spanish by Jessica Powell (Dominican Republic, Mandel Vilar Press)

Chronicle of the Murdered House by Lúcio Cardoso, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson (Brazil, Open Letter Books)

Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Mauritius, Deep Vellum)

Zama by Antonio di Benedetto, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (Argentina, New York Review Books)

Doomi Golo by Boubacar Boris Diop, translated from the Wolof by Vera Wülfing-Leckie and El Hadji Moustapha Diop (Senegal, Michigan State University Press)

War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans, translated from the Dutch by David McKay (Belgium, Pantheon)

Umami by Laia Jufresa, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (Mexico, Oneworld)

Oblivion by Sergei Lebedev, translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis (Russia, New Vessel Press)

Ladivine by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (France, Knopf)

Among Strange Victims by Daniel Saldaña Paris, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)

'The winners will be announced on May 4 at 7 p.m. EST at The Folly in New York City, and online at The Millions. Created by Three Percent, this annual award highlights great works of world literature published the previous year. Each winning author and translator will receive a $5,000 cash prize thanks to grant funds from the Amazon Literary Partnership.'

https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/news-and-events/the-2017-best-translat...

The BTBA for Fiction is basically the American equivalent of the newly formatted Man Booker International Prize, although the BTBA has a similar award for Poetry as well. War and Turpentine is the only novel to appear on the MBIP and BTBA longllists, and I'll be curious to see if it makes the MBIP shortlist, which will be announced tomorrow. I won't follow the BTBA shortlist or longlist in the way that I plan to read everything from the MBIP longlist, but I will read Doomi Golo, as I've heard of but haven't read anything by Boubacar Boris Diop, and I believe that this is the first book to ever be translated from the Wolof into English.

>192 kidzdoc: I hope you are feeling better after a good sleep Darryl. It's frustrating to miss something you want to do, but sometimes the body dictates. Enjoy meeting up with Paul for the play tonight.

>195 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. I'm feeling a bit better today, but I'm still a bit groggy and have a lot of nasal congestion, sinus inflammation and sore throat. Fortunately I shopped at the M&S in St Pancras on Sunday, and my hotel room has a small refrigerator, so I had enough food for three breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners (I do like the sandwiches and pasta salads that M&S sells). I just finished lunch, so I'll take another nap shortly, and probably stay in until a hour or two before the play starts.

Fortunately Rachael was able to sell my ticket at the Cambridge Arts Theatre last night. We've been in touch multiple times today, and have made tentative plans to meet tomorrow, probably at the London Review Cake Shop. Paul Harris and I had also made tentative plans to meet up tomorrow, so hopefully I can figure out how to accomplish both goals. As I've probably mentioned Rachael is the first LTer I met in person, in August 2007, and she remains high on my long list of favorites; it would be a shame if we didn't meet at least for a quick tea in the Cake Shop.

I'll report on Incident at Vichy and the Finborough Theatre later tonight or tomorrow.

I managed to score a ticket for Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at Donmar Warehouse on Saturday night. I had been trying for several weeks to get a ticket, and one single seat became available last night. I've also never managed to get a ticket to see anything at the Donmar, so I'm pleased as punch that I got lucky this time.

Congratulations on the Brecht ticket Darryl. Sir Lennie is a national treasure, you won't be disappointed. I'm sure you'll like the Donmar too. Another of our smaller theatres, with a great track-record for quality productions.

>196 kidzdoc: Congrats on the Brecht ticket. it's one of my favourite author.

Wow Darryl, that sounds like a great show.

Caroline redirected me here from your Club Read thread. It's great to catch up on all your travels, books, theatres, gardens and photos.

Glad you're having a great time Darryl. Sorry we won't be able to meet up this time. After getting back from Cyprus I'm now completely engrossed in the final stages of my degree course, which is taking up all my free time. I've got one more month to go and then I should have finished my degree!

Wow, you have been so busy. I know I can't travel though you really, but I kind of feel like I have recently been to London because of your posts!!

Great to see you enjoying London .... & you get to Lenny in theatre that will be a treat!

See the Jam&cream scone debate continued in my absence .... just to say you are wrong jam does not belong on top :)

>193 kidzdoc: >194 kidzdoc: The chances of my local library having a single title on either list is pretty much nonexistent. *sigh*

Happy Friday, Darryl!

Happy Saturday, everyone! Bianca and I had planned to go to today's March for Science in London; unfortunately she's not feeling well today and could use some rest, as she is on a very busy work stretch. I've had two very enjoyable and full days out, and since I have three full days ahead (Sunday through Tuesday) before I leave on Wednesday I think I'll take it easy as well, until tonight's performance of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at Donmar Warehouse, especially since I continue to have moderate allergic rhinitis and intermittent wheezing (which was loud enough that Bianca heard it when we went on a walk yesterday).

>197 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. I've wanted to see three or four plays at the Donmar Warehouse in the past, but have never managed to get a ticket for any of them until this week. I read somewhere that Donmar's subscribers nab nearly all of the tickets for performances once they become available, which presumably explains why they are so difficult for the general public to see anything there.

>198 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. I hadn't seen any of Brecht's plays until a group of us saw |The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre this past September. I'm thrilled that I was able to book tickets for it, and for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the Old Vic on Monday. Depending on what plans arise on Tuesday I may also see Twelfth Night at the National Theatre on Tuesday night.

After my day out with my friend Kim on Sunday I've had second thoughts about my June trip to Europe. I think I'll skip Amsterdam this year, and I'll probably spend another 7-10 days in London, and 10-14 days in Iberia instead, definitely Spain, and probably Portugal if @deebee1 is at home in Lisbon.

>199 charl08: Arturo Ui does sound good, Charlotte. I'll report on it late tonight or Sunday morning.

>200 VivienneR: Hi Vivienne! I've been neglectful of my Club Read thread so far this year, although I should be able to catch up there after I return to Atlanta next week.

>201 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian. I'm sorry that we won't meet this time as well, although I was able to see Bianca, Caroline, Claire and her sister Karen, Fliss, Paul Harris and Rachael, and hopefully Paul Cranswick and I will be able to get together next week. Hopefully we can meet when I return in June; I'll look to see what's on in London that month, and decide whether I want to start or end my trip there. Now that this trip is nearing its end it's naturally time to prepare for the next one!

It looks as though the three of you had a great time in Cyprus. Congratulations in advance for finishing your degree!

>202 LovingLit: I have had busy days, Megan, but I've thrown in some quiet ones as well, to avoid getting too run down. I often catch an upper respiratory infection during my trips here, presumably because the strains of the viruses in western Europe are sufficiently different from those in the US that my past exposures to sick kids in the hospital don't provide sufficient protection from the European ones.

Wouldn't it be nice if all of us lived closer to London so that we could meet up on a regular basis? Maybe Jim's next project could be a rapid transport system that would cut travel time from distant places like Atlanta and Christchurch down to two hours or less.

>203 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex. I don't know Lenny Henry at all, but your and Caroline's comments make me that much more eager to see him perform tonight.

See the Jam&cream scone debate continued in my absence .... just to say you are wrong jam does not belong on top :)

Sorry. Fliss, who is my barometer on all things British, gave me permission to have jam on top of cream, as did Caroline, Claire and Karen.

>204 alcottacre: I suspect that this holds true for my local library as well, Stasia. I hope that you have a nice weekend planned!

>206 kidzdoc: I'm working on a transporter a la Star Trek - so I can pop over to London for the afternoon and be home in time for supper! 😀

>206 kidzdoc: Regarding the jam & cream scone debate: I agree with your British advisors, the jam goes on top. Devonshire cream is used on scones, not frothy whipped cream, so the jam can sit on top happily. And it looks luscious. As a British ex-pat I'm sorry to say it's not often done in Canada because Devonshire cream is not readily available.

>68 kidzdoc: I got a little behind on threads, Darryl, but I finally did post the recipe on my thread and the Kitchen. My bracket was definitely saved by Gonzaga, and I'm sure Villanova losing early did damage to a lot of brackets. We don't have a Sprouts Farmers Market, but the Aldi near my parents house has had avocados for 88 cents. I usually wait 'til it's on sale, and when I bought them for a pasta salad I think I paid $5 for a bag of four.

Glad to see your trip is going well and that the allergies are getting a bit better. "Allergies" sounds so much better to say that a cold, but when I don't take loratadine daily for a month, it can make me feel miserable all spring...

This all sounds great, Darryl. Twelfth Night is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays.

>206 kidzdoc: If you are using clotted cream that would be right, not available down here so hence my preference even on whipped cream its not right .... or maybe its my Northern parents bias :)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the theatre & Lenny then ......

Happy Sunday, Darryl. It's lovely to see that you enjoy your London trip.

Enjoying as always reading your travel log Darryl.

I am travelling back to the UK today and let's see whether I can get some time off next week early.

Couldn't resist posting this, although it is about pronunciation, rather than how you eat them, note the picture!

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/23/how-do-you-pronounce-scone-answe...

Very interesting, Caroline. As I'm originally from Northern Ireland, my scone rhymes with gone.

I've noticed the missing for a while but this is the first time I've read about it. My English friend always offers my husband a "beah". On the tv series The Bletchley Circle, the "pattern" they were always seeking, was pronounced "patten". Somehow that's normal, but "bovver" still bothers me.

Me too Vivienne, Scots/N-Irish heritage for me, on my dad's side.

The pronunciation that bugs me is 'Haich' instead of 'aich' to pronounce h. It is extremely common now, and I saw a teacher using it on tv, so no wonder.

>214 Caroline_McElwee: I saw that too, and was going to post it! There is also an app which attempts to deconstruct your accent but it completely failed with mine putting me either somewhere in Kent or near Birmingham! But my accent is a real mishmash I think.

>214 Caroline_McElwee: - Such an interesting article, thanks for this. I always enjoyed deciphering accents (in my city of Toronto, English as a mother tongue is not necessarily the norm. You can't go out of your house and NOT hear any number of other languages being spoken everywhere.) But I have to wonder, if *th* is being replaced by *f* or *v*, are people learning to spell words that way or do they somehow learn the correct spelling, but just keep a preference for their own pronunciation? I think that's what bothers me most about the new *textspeak*, where *u* replaces *you* and *r* replaces *are*, and so on. Personally, I just can't do it. And don't particularly want to.

Good morning, everyone! Sorry that I haven't done a great job of keeping up here, although I have done so on my Facebook timeline, but I will catch up, probably toward the end of the week after I return to Atlanta on Wednesdday. Today I'll definitely meet Caroline for dinner (I made reservations for 17.30 at Baltic, C) and we'll see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead tonight at the Old Vic.

>207 drneutron: Excellent, Jim. Do let us know when the LT transporter is up and running.

BTW, how did you get that emoji to appear?

>208 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne. I can understand the argument for putting whipped cream on top of jam, but I wouldn't want to use whipped cream on scones in the first place!

>209 bell7: Thanks for posting your chicken & rice recipe to The Kitchen, Mary. I need to post some recipes there as well, particularly the one for avocado tuna salad, which I'll definitely make again after I return to Atlanta.

Returning to the ATL will be a harsh culture shock, if only because the high temperatures will be 30-35 degrees higher there. It's mainly been cloudy and in the mid to upper 50s here, although it will be even cooler the first half of the week, whereas Atlanta's high temperatures will be in the mid to upper 80s for the second half of the week.

There is at least one Aldi in Atlanta, but it's at least five miles away, in a direction that I don't normally go, so I haven't been there yet. I think there is one relatively close to my parents' home, though, so I'll probably stop there next month when I visit them, as they are both eager to try the avocado tuna salad. I'll have to split the batch, as my father, and possibly my mother, wouldn't like the red onion in it. I may try making it without it, and consider adding it to my salad if it's not as tasty without it.

Despite my annual disastrous March Sadness bracket I remain optimistic for the future. The fun comes from creating a bracket, talking with others about the NCAA tournament, and the copious amount of vicious and often hilarious trash talking that ensues, especially between the UNC and Duke alumni. Not surprisingly my Tar Heel Facebook friends have all kept their UNC related profile photos and images, whereas my Blue Devil friends have quietly taken theirs down, to my delight (I'm firmly in the anti-dook camp).

This has been a great trip so far, even though I've missed seeing several people and spent minimal time with two of my closest friends, Fliss and Rachael. I've decided to return here for at least a week and probably two in June, though, and I'll almost certainly make a third trip here this summer after Fliss, Margaret and I meet up for the Edinburgh International Festival in the second half of August.

>210 jnwelch: I'm glad to hear that, Joe. I haven't purchased a ticket yet, but there is a good chance that I'll see Twelfth Night tomorrow night.

>211 roundballnz: I wonder how the whipped cream you and others are referring to compares to my American concept of whipped cream, as I suspect (or at least hope) that it's different.

I'll expound on the review of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui that I posted on my Facebook timeline Saturday night. As you know I absolutely loved it, and I thought that Sir Lenny Henry was brilliant in the lead role.

>212 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. This trip to London has been another splendid and memorable one. My sadness at leaving on Wednesday will be tempered by the knowledge that I'll be back in less than two months.

>213 PaulCranswick: Welcome back to the UK, Paul! Tomorrow is wide open for the moment, so I am available to meet up if it works with your schedule.

>214 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for posting that great article, Caroline! It looks to have come from yesterday's Observer, which I bought but haven't read yet. The most noticeable pronunciation difference to me is the substitution of "vv" for "th", as in "bovver" in place of "bother", which sounds wrong to my refined and delicate American ears.

To my knowledge essentially all Americans pronounce "scone" with the long "o" sound, to rhyme with "bone".

>215 VivienneR: but "bovver" still bothers me

Ha! That pronunciation doesn't bother me, but I do notice it, especially since only some of my British friends do so.

>216 Caroline_McElwee: The pronunciation that bugs me is 'Haich' instead of 'aich' to pronounce h.

Interesting; I haven't heard that pronunciation before.

>217 SandDune: I could understand that, Rhian, since you are originally from Wales (for how long did you live there?).

Other than sounding American I think I've lost whatever regional accents I've ever had. I don't think I sound as if I come from NYC or Philadelphia, the two metropolitan areas that I grew up in, and I certainly don't have an Atlanta accent, and other than being able to pronounce certain words that native New Orleanians and Pittsburghers use I have no accents from those places.

Oddly enough, because I apparently don't speak Spanish with an American accent, according to Latino families I meet and colleaguees I work with, if I'm labeled as being from somewhere it's the Dominican Republic! That's presumably because of my brown skin, as there are many Dominicans who are derived from former African slaves. Many parents I first meet in hospital have similar mixed looks of pleasure (that I can speak Spanish) and utter confusion (where is this guy from?!), especially if I'm accompanied by residents or nurses and readily flip back and forth between speaking American without a Spanish accent, or Spanish without an American one (although I've encountered plenty of second and third generation Latinos who can do the same thing, especially if they grew up in a bilingual household). They will almost always ask me where I'm from, and when I tell them that I have no Latino heritage they are pleased, but mostly still confused!

>218 jessibud2: I agree with you about not liking "textspeak", Shelley. I rarely use those abbreviations, although I'm not particularly bothered when others do.

>219 kidzdoc: I look forward to catching up later Darryl.

The vv has tended to be youth speak, and as it mentioned it was exacerbated by its use by a comedien who brought it into more common use.

Someone told me that the way we pronounce things is partially the set of our jaw, which can be different for different cultures, hence the different sound combinations in different languages, and why some people have difficulty with those sounds. That makes a lot of sense to me. The Dutch, for example, have difficulty with 'th', and it tends to come out as 'd'.

Enjoy reading about the accents in different parts of the US. I recently visited my sister in NS, and I just loved the Maritime accent. (of course, they were no doubt thinking that I was the one with the odd expressions)

>224 lit_chick: - Oh yes! That Maritime accent (especially the hardcore Newfoundlanders) is really something! I rather enjoy listening to it and it's so unique, in its own way :-)

>219 kidzdoc: LT now supports emojis in Talk, I think. I was on my iPad and just added it as normal.

All good things (and, for that matter, bad things) must come to an end, and today is the last day of another great trip to London. My flight leaves from LHR in a little over six hours, and it will arrive at ATL just past 8 pm Eastern Time (1 am BST).

I'm off from work until Monday, so I'll have time to update my thread with photos, theatre reviews, book purchases, and meet ups with seven LTers (including Claire's sister, who has met so many of us that she must be granted honorary LT member status). I'll plan to create a new thread, probably on Thursday morning.

It won't be long before I return to London, though. June, as usual, is my vacation free month that I earned from working extra shifts from November through February, and I've all but completely decided to spend two weeks in London, followed by 5-7 days in the Basque Country of Spain (Bilbao and San Sebastián), and ending with three days in Madrid (which will make Javier, my madrileno work partner, happy). I'll finalize my plans by this weekend.

Before that I'll spend a week and a half with my parents in Philadelphia, from May 7-16. I'll talk with them and my brother about this trip later this week, and see if anyone here is up for a quick meet up in NYC and/or Philadelphia.

>223 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for joining me for a nice dinner and an even better play on Monday, Caroline! I'll keep my eye out to see what's on in the theatres in June, but please let me know if there are upcoming performances that strike your fancy.

The Dutch, for example, have difficulty with 'th', and it tends to come out as 'd'.

Interesting. I hadn't noticed that when I've been around our Dutch LT friends in the Netherlands the past two years. Unfortunately a trip to Amsterdam isn't in my plans so far this year, although I could easily make a trip in the autumn if I have an unplanned week off from work, as Delta offers at least three daily nonstop flights from ATL to AMS.

>224 lit_chick:, >225 jessibud2: How does the Newfoundland Maritime accent compare to a New England accent? I would assume that the two are very different from each other.

>226 drneutron: Ah! I didn't notice that. Thanks, Jim! 😊

Looking forward to reading about your purchases and any recent books read. Your next holiday sounds great.

Delurking to say Hi! I am glad you had so many wonderful meet-ups and adventures in London. Can't wait for more pictures when you have a chance to catch up here this weekend. Safe trip home!!

Safe travels Darryl.

Wishing you save travels, Darryl.

>228 kidzdoc: - Darryl, I am not sure I know what the New England accent is. Is it like the Kennedys (JFK, RFK, etc)? What we think of as Boston accent? As for Newfoundland, it's not an easy thing to describe in words, but rather, you have to actually hear it so here is a clip from one of my favourite tv shows, The Rick Mercer Report. Mercer is from Newfoundland but his accent is barely noticeable, unless he goes back to Nfld, as he does in this clip. The cabbies' accents are the *real thing*.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d4xmzOf5K0

Happy Wednesday, Darryl! Safe travels back. I hope your jet lag is not too bad!

Safe travels, buddy.

Just stopping by to say "hi" and, as always, loving the vicarious travel.

The flight has been an excellent one so far, and we should land in Atlanta in a little less than five hours. The plane is less than one half full, so everyone is spread out, including some passengers who have the row in the middle section all to themselves, and are lying across all three seats. I'm in a bulkhead row just behind first class with unlimited leg room (if I extend my legs fully my feet can't touch the divider in front of me), and the woman that was sitting next to me moved to another row just before we took off.

>229 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry. I bought far fewer books on this trip to London than any other one so far, roughly 15 in all, 11 of which came when Paul Harris and I spent a day going to three bookshops in different parts of London.

Claire helped me finalize my June vacation plans, so now it's just a matter of making flight, train and hotel reservations.

>230 Berly: Hi, Kim! I did meet up with someone most days, although many were with just one person, so they weren't traditional LT get togethers.

Photos and descriptions will be coming soon, probably tomorrow morning, which looks to be a stormy day in Atlanta. I've kept my Facebook timeline up to date, so it's just a matter of transferring photos and descriptions here. I'll create a new thread, since I'm getting close to 250 posts.

>231 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. The flight is over the Atlantic Ocean, approaching the eastern coast of Newfoundland. These flights normally hug the North American Atlantic Coast, flying due east from England, then traveling southeast from Newfoundland to Atlanta, which is considerably more inland than the major Northeastern cities are.

>232 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. So far, so good; we had a few drops of rain at Heathrow, but once we rose above the clouds it's been a smooth flight, with only a few and mild turbulent bumps. We now have exactly 2300 miles to go, and a little more than 4 hr 40 min of flying time left.

I'm taking a quick reading break; since yesterday I've finished two books, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors, which was chosen for this year's Man Booker International Prize shortlist, and the script for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which Caroline and I saw at The Old Vic on Monday night. I'm about 1/4 of the way through Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, which also made the MBIP shortlist. It's a quick read, and I should have no problem finishing it before we land. Once I finish it I'll have completed four of the six shortlisted novels, so I should have plenty of time to complete the shortlist in advance of the MBIP ceremony in mid June.

>233 jessibud2: I'm certainly no expert on New England accents, Shelley, as I've never lived there and haven't spent much time in Massachusetts or any other state in that region. I think of the Kennedys when I think of a New England accent, although I would expect that Bostonians sound different from people who live in Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine.

I don't see a link to the Rick Mercer video.

>234 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! I have far less problems with jet lag on westbound flights (Europe to US, East Coast to West Coast) than I do on eastbound ones. I don't have to work until Monday, and I'm only working for five days before I make my next trip on the Sunday after next, when I'll spend nine days with my parents in the Philadelphia area.

>235 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I wish you and Debbi safe travels on your upcoming trip to Barcelona!

>236 avidmom: Good to see you here, avidmom! I'll also update my Club Read thread tomorrow.

>238 kidzdoc: - Oof. Here you go, Darryl. Sorry I forgot to add it, but I also added it in my original post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d4xmzOf5K0

I'm back home in Atlanta, after a particularly smooth and uneventful flight on a mostly empty plane, which was unusual especially considering that my outgoing flight from ATL to LHR was completely full. Hmm...I understand that visits by tourists to the US from Europe has dropped significantly since trump took office, so I'll be curious to see how many people are on board the international flights I'll take in June and August/September. It's just past 9 am here, which feels like 2 am in London, so I'll crash pretty soon.

>240 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley; I'll watch that YouTube video tomorrow.

Welcome home, Darryl. It looks like your London trip went very well. Love all the wonderful photos and the happy faces, at your various Meet Ups.

Glad you have a few days to unwind before returning to work.

Glad you made it safely back home.

Good Thursday morning from Atlanta!



Yep, I think I'll stay inside until at least this afternoon.

>242 msf59: Thanks, Mark. Yes, this latest London trip was a very good one, and I look forward to returning there in early June.

I thought about staying until Friday, but returning on Wednesday gives me plenty of time to get readjusted to the Eastern Time Zone.

>243 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara.

Time for a new thread...

Hi, Darryl!

I loved loved LOVED Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead. Stoppard is pretty amazing.

>245 scaifea: Hi, Amber! Caroline and I enjoyed Monday's performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at The Old Vic. I'll write a review of the play and the script in my new thread. Did you see the movie or the theatrical version of it (or both)?