A few days ago I got to see a talk by Touré, who reports on rap for Rolling Stone magazine. He read from his latest book, and answered questions. I could tell why he was such a good reporter. Besides having a natural way with words, he had an easy-going, yet involved manner. He just sort of exudes a hip sort of friendliness.
It got me thinking, though. My knowledge of rap is quite limited. It's been a major chunk of the cultural pie for a long time now. Ever since I saw people beat-boxing in junior high school, and walking down the halls spurting Beastie Boys rhymes, it's always been there for me. But aside from a few Easy E tapes that Brian V would constantly play in his car, I never seriously listened to it.
Touré's had great things to say about a number of artists, from names that are very familiar (Queen's own "50 cent", at least the early work), to one's I hadn't heard of, like "Ghostface Killah". He is pretty down on the whole South-driven rap scene right now, where the hooks come first and the words later. And, he continued, some of the songs are hardly even songs - they open with a chorus, or a double chorus, or even a triple chorus! The verse is completely forgettable, and not really personal or political in any way.
At any rate, I really should get some rap albums. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
Another find from the downstairs library: a book called "The Encyclopedia of Misinformation". It's a great book detailing all sorts of wrong thing people believe in. I was a bit suspicious of this book, because often books of this sort are full of misinformation themselves. However, from the misinformation it lists that I already knew was misinformation, it seemed correct and well researched.
Except for one entry, on the phrase "Get thee to a nunnery" in Shakespeare. The book claims that nunnery in Shakespeare's time meant a house of prostitution, and that people mistakingly believe that it really means a convent. That sounded highly dubious to me. I mean, obviously a nunnery is a convent, it seems very straightforward. So I just googled around on this, and found out that I'm not the only one who thinks so. According to that link, while nunnery sometimes meant a house of prostitution, it usually means a convent. Shakespeare scholars agree that convent is the meaning that Shakespeare was after.
I'm surprised that the Encyclopedia of Misinformation got this wrong. It had an excellent article about how the whole Shakespeare authorship discussion is bullshit, and how there is overwhelming evidence that Shakespeare wrote the works that today bear his name.
So now you know, dear readers. The only debunkings you can trust are the one endorsed by this blog.
I'm always on the lookout for some interesting books from our building's communal bookshelf. I've mentioned this before. Last weekend, I saw an interesting little book on writing tips. I snagged it. Let's face it, I could use some writing tips.
About halfway through it, I discovered the previous owner had left a receipt from Rite-Aid. It was for a lice comb.
I'm not even sure what a lice comb is, but now I'm quite disturbed. Perhaps you can look forward to a beautifully written post about my new case of head lice.
How many people can one pound of pasta feed as a main course? I ask, because I subscribe to Cook's Illustrated magazine, and they had a segment on pasta. They claimed that one pound of pasta can feed "4 to 6 people as a main course". Now, I probably eat a little more than average. However, I feel I can comfortably eat more than half a pound of pasta myself. My wife Greta, who is a fairly small woman, eats less than me, but still around half a pound of pasta.
So why would Cook's Illustrated, a magazine that is pretty well informed, have such a bizarre estimate? I figure it is because they really are talking sort of a dinner-party style entree. People have eaten soup, maybe some bread. By the time the main course comes around, perhaps they aren't very hungry. And of course they have to save some room for dessert. Oh isn't that typical of that whole Vermont-style living that the editor of that magazine loves so much.
Really, though, I feel that this is deceptive. I don't normally have courses. Who has time to make more than one meal, or clean more than one set of dishes? So I feel that one pound of pasta can feed 2 people as a main (and only) course normally. Less, of course, if there is more food. But that case is unusual and not really even worth talking about.