I just ate some Kartoffelpuffer, also known as latkes, or draniki, or even Placki kartoflane (Platski). Fried food is not my favorite, but I have to admit there is something deeply comforting about hot potato pancakes. Perhaps it is the habit of eating them with family and friends, or the time of year when they are most often served. Speaking of things that have strange translations in other languages, I recently noticed that the Polish word for laxative is Srodek przeczyszczajacy. Perhaps the theory is that if you can say it clearly then you don’t need it. Not sure how that came to mind…oh, right I was talking about latkes.
There seems to be an abundance of thinking about latkes in the world. I have noticed some argue potatoes are only a recent development — a New World ingredient. This suggests latkes as a concept much broader than the potato pancake. Yet I know of no modern latke without potatoes. You? Moreover, this same article argues that Holofernes, a general of Nebuchadnezzar, was beheaded by Judith after a meal of latkes. Really? A general was put to sleep by latkes? I think the regular story of a general who drank too much and let his guard down is more likely. It is not just history that comes up in the latke texts. I also found philosophy. The famous debates have seen latkes used as a vehicle of metaphysics:
Whatever there are, some of them are latkes. (Free metaphysics.)
In every possible world there is a latke, though perhaps not the same latke. (Modal semantics.)
Necessarily, there is an x such that x is the square root of 2, and there is another x which is a latke. (Technical modal mathematical logic.)
All this thinking about potato pancakes is interesting, but to be honest I really just like to eat them. Nothing like a good Kartoffelpuffer with a seasonal Bock — Weihenstephaner Korbinian to go with wild-boar sausage and a side of sauerkraut, Spätzle and of course potato pancakes…yum.
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art–
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors–
No–yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever–or else swoon to death.
The ever present question…constellation or shooting star?
Rob Brezsny has many funny things to say, and they are often enlightening as well. I like this bit:
Roshi’s wisdom reminded me of an anecdote told by Henry Kissinger, an American politician who was Secretary of State in the 1970s. Kissinger once asked Chinese premier Zhou Enlai what he thought of the French Revolution, which had happened two centuries earlier. “Too soon to tell,” Chou answered.
If only we could apply this logic in the SIEM or even incident market. I was just given a few weeks to investigate a serious incident…can it be done? Where is Inspector Poirot when you need him? Those TV detectives always seem to resolve things within one episode or two at the most.
Reactions to regulations, especially where a tax is involved, are a peculiar thing. Take for example what just happened in Helsinki:
Finland has rated the DVD release of the much-loved children’s television series “Little House on the Prairie” suitable for adult viewing only.
To save money, Universal Pictures decided not to submit the series to state inspection, the company’s Finland marketing manager Meri Suomela told Reuters on Wednesday.
The rate is 2 euros a minute for an inspection. Reuters also reports the show is already shown publicly every Sunday morning by the national station. Ironic? Maybe the over-18 rating will help generate new interest.
a blog about the poetry of information security, since 1995