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Weekend Edition: Some stories of kindness and beauty: Roast chicken (again? yes), the weekend movie, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (again? yes), and a gorilla more human than some humans
Published: Oct 07, 2021
Category:
Weekend
Another gnarly week, in which the usual suspects conspired to make you feel even worse. There’s one stunning news story here. But as much as possible, let’s focus on beauty and kindness, as epitomized by the photo (above) and this story…
MORE HUMAN THAN SOME HUMANS I CAN THINK OF
Ndakasi died in the Congo, in the arms of her caretaker. From the Times:
Andre Bauma met Ndakasi when she was just 2 months old, just after she was holding onto her mother’s dead body. A decade later, Ndakasi has died holding onto Mr. Bauma. She was 14.
In April 2007, the Congolese park said its rangers had found Ndakasi “clinging to the lifeless body of her mother, gunned down by armed militia hours earlier.” With no relatives of the infant gorilla present, rangers considered it too dangerous to leave her by herself. They took her to a rescue center, where she met Mr. Bauma, the park said. “All night long, Andre held the baby close to him,” the park said. In 2009, a center focusing on the care of orphaned mountain gorillas was created inside the park. Mr. Bauma became its manager. “I played with her, I fed her,” the BBC quoted Mr. Bauma as saying in 2014. “I can say I am her mother.”
After her death, Mr. Bauma said that getting to know Ndakasi had “helped me to understand the connection between humans and great apes and why we should do everything in our power to protect them. I loved her like a child, and her cheerful personality brought a smile to my face every time I interacted with her.”
THE WEEKEND MOVIE (NOT JUST FOR KIDS): “MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO”
“My Neighbor Totoro” is a 1988 animated feature written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. it is a fantastic film experience, an 86-minute swath of gorgeousness with a message as beautiful as its images.
Two leading characters, both girls. A loving father who, despite his work at a university, accepts the existence of spirits. A strange house that turns out to be warm and welcoming. A monster who isn’t dangerous. In short, a world of harmony and understanding. The biggest problem here: When will Mom be healthy enough to come home for the weekend?
The sense of relief generated by all this well-being is liberating. It allows us to explore with the girls, to laugh at the socially inept boy who lives nearby, and to wallow in the girls’ adventures with the totoro. And the absence of conflict allows us to do something else: respond to the film’s extravagant beauty. Miyazaki’s a wonderful painter; if there was ever a film that makes you want to move to the country, this is it. The sky, the clouds, the forest — this animation delivers more visual interest per frame than real-world photography.
Read my review. Watch a video.
WEEKEND SONG: “A WHITER SHADE OF PALE”
You have heard this song a zillion times. Why urge you to listen again? This time it’s a collaboration: Carlos Santana on guitar, Stevie Winwood singing. Listen here.
And, yes, there’s a similarity between the organ here and J. S. Bach’s Air from his Orchestral Suite No. 3 BWV1068, (the “Air on the G string”), “where the sustained opening note of the main melodic line flowers into a free-flowing melody against a descending bass line.”
YOU MAKE THE CALL: ON JANUARY 6, SHEER LUCK, TRIAL AND ERROR, OR ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE?
Sarah D. Wire, in the LA Times:
Four major access points that Jan. 6 rioters used to break into and overtake the U.S. Capitol had something unusual in common: They were among a dozen or so ground-floor windows and glass-paned doors that had not been recently reinforced.
The majority of the Capitol’s 658 single-pane windows were quietly upgraded during a 2017-19 renovation of the historic building. The original wooden frames and glass were covered with a second metal frame containing bomb-resistant glass.
But planners skipped about a dozen ground-floor windows, including some located in doors, because they were deemed to be low risk in the event of implosion, largely due to their discreet or shielded location, or because the building couldn’t structurally handle the load of the heavier frames.
And whether by sheer luck, real-time trial and error, or advance knowledge by rioters, several of those vulnerable windows and two glass-paned doors — protected with only a thin Kevlar film added after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — became easy entry points for hundreds of Trump supporters who overran and ransacked the building on Jan. 6.
Video shows some of the first rioters to break through the police line running past 15 reinforced windows, making a beeline for a recessed area on the Senate side of the building, where two unreinforced windows and two doors with unreinforced glass were all that stood between them and hallways leading to lawmakers inside who had not begun to evacuate. A rioter’s fist cracked the glass of one window, video posted to social media shows. A stolen police riot shield and a wooden pole finished the job. In seconds, the unreinforced glass gave way in a single sheet. Rioters poured through the window. Similar methods were used to break glass in at least three other locations.
ROAST CHICKEN… AGAIN? HERE’S AN EASY ADD-ON
from Canal House: Cook Something: Recipes to Rely On.
Roast chicken… again? This tomato butter adds a new dimension. When you’re ready to use it, don’t warm it up, just slather it on the roasted chicken and let it melt.
TOMATO BUTTER FOR ROAST CHICKEN
serves 4-6
2 lemons
2 anchovy filets packed in oil, drained and finely chopped
6 sprigs fresh thyme
¾ cup dry sherry
2 big tablespoons tomato paste
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold butter, cut into 8 pieces
Put the anchovies, thyme and sherry in as heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain the sherry through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Discard the solids. Return the sherry to the pan. Boil over medium-high heat until the sherry has reduced to ¼ cup. Whisk in the tomato paste. Add the butter one piece at a time, whisking until it has melted before adding the next piece. Whisk until all the butter has melted and the sauce is smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and cover to keep the tomato butter warm.
