The Chicago Tribune has named my staggeringly talented friend and former colleague Shawn Okpebholo Chicagoan of the year in classical music.
Either Adam Roberts and I happened to be writing about The Mill on the Floss at the same time or he is surreptitiously arguing with me.
I’m continuing my meditations on family with a post on The Mill on the Floss.
Umberto Eco (1999):
But what I really want to talk about is beans, and not just beans but also peas and lentils. All these fruits of the earth are rich in vegetable proteins, as anyone who goes on a low-meat diet knows, for the nutritionist will be sure to insist that a nice dish of lentils or split peas has the nutritional value of a thick, juicy steak. Now the poor, in those remote Middle Ages, did not eat meat, unless they managed to raise a few chickens or engaged in poaching (the game of the forest was the property of the lords). And as I mentioned earlier, this poor diet begat a population that was ill nourished, thin, sickly, short and incapable of tending the fields. So when, in the 10th century, the cultivation of legumes began to spread, it had a profound effect on Europe. Working people were able to eat more protein; as a result, they became more robust, lived longer, created more children and repopulated a continent.
We believe that the inventions and the discoveries that have changed our lives depend on complex machines. But the fact is, we are still here — I mean we Europeans, but also those descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers and the Spanish conquistadors – because of beans. Without beans, the European population would not have doubled within a few centuries, today we would not number in the hundreds of millions and some of us, including even readers of this article, would not exist.
Fun to come across these, from back in the heyday of the Oxford American — also when I wrote for the mag. (Perhaps unrelated facts. You be the judge.) These samplers — included in each year’s Music Issue — introduced me to so many musicians I’m still listening to today.
Autumn finally makes an appearance in central Texas.
Mozi is probably an excellent app for people who say things like “Great to see that you’ll be in Davos too — and we just connected in Aspen!”
See the false gods fall over on their backsides when confronted by the GLORY of the ANGEL of the LORD!
