Author: swanksalot

Always good to have a second user look at things

Courgetts (or Courgettes)

swanksalot0 comment
Courgetts (or Courgettes)
Courgetts (or Courgettes), originally uploaded by swanksalot.

There isn’t much of a language barrier in the UK for an American visitor, but this word baffled me in a few restaurants before stumbling upon this farmers market. Ahh, zucchini.

From Wikipedia:

Zucchini, like all summer squash, has its ancestry in the Americas. However, the varieties of squash typically called “zucchini” were indeed developed in Italy, many generations after their introduction from the “New World”.

In all probability, this occurred in the very late 19th century, probably near Milan; early varieties usually included the names of nearby cities in their names. The alternate name courgette is from the French word for the vegetable, with the same spelling, and is commonly used in France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. It is a diminutive of courge, French for squash. “Zucca” is the Italian word for squash and “zucchina” is its diminutive, becoming “zucchine” in the plural. However, “zucchino”, the masculine form, becoming “zucchini” in the plural, is just as commonly used and is prevalent in Tuscany. Italian dictionaries such as “lo Zingarelli 1995, Zanichelli editor”, give both forms. “Zucchini” is used in Italy , and in Australia, Canada and the United States. ‘Zucchini’ is plural in Italian whereas in English it is singular. The first records of zucchini in the United States date to the early 1920s. It was almost certainly brought over by Italian immigrants and probably was first cultivated in the United States in California.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zucchini

I didn’t even notice it was misspelled on the sign until Frank1 pointed it out…

Footnotes:
  1. aka The Irish Samurai [↩]

The County Hall, London – TRI-X 400

swanksalot0 comment

post processed in Photoshop, of course.

Bigger in Lightbox

I’m slowly chugging through all of my photos from London, have three more days of images to sort through.

If you are curious as to what I’ve found of interest so far, there is a Flickr set called London which has a slideshow option. Give it a second to load. There are controls for the slideshow if you hover your mouse in the upper right corner. I’ll be adding more as I can, but there are enough uploaded to while away a few minutes dreaming of travel…

Lambeth Palace

swanksalot0 comment
Lambeth Palace
Lambeth Palace, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

Lambeth, South Bank, London

From Wikipedia:

Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is located in Lambeth, on the south bank of the River Thames a short distance upstream of the Palace of Westminster on the opposite shore.

It was acquired by the archbishopric around 1200. Lambeth Palace Road is to the west, Lambeth Road is to the south and Lambeth Bridge is to the south-west

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeth_Palace

not a particularly inviting place, is it?

Twitter Updates for 2010-08-21

swanksalot0 comment

Powered by Twitter Tools

Banksy half-assed

swanksalot0 comment
Banksy half-assed
Banksy half-assed, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

I think Chicago got less interesting work than other places.

www.nileguide.com/blog/2010/05/27/on-the-stencil-trail-fo…

Embiggening

From an interview with First District Alderman Joe Moreno:

Who’s getting tagged in your ward? The tagging is mostly happening to small and independently owned, women-owned, minority-owned businesses: boutiques, restaurants, and clothing shops. Our community is an artists’ community, but we don’t want to have people putting their own paint on small business owners’ shops.

I moved to Wicker Park 14 years ago because of the artists, and I want to preserve that. But in my mind, tagging isn’t permissible.

What if a super-famous street artist like Banksy, who paid us a visit not long ago, created a piece on one of your constituents’ facades without asking? Would you make an exception for Banksy? Permission has to be granted. I would hope he’d work with a pro-art, progressive alderman like myself, and we could have his art displayed. And he could perhaps even get paid for it.

How would that happen? Well, I’ve been taking on this issue in two ways: the illegal removal side, and also in promoting spaces for street artists to show their work off and get paid for it. I’m working with various parties to make their walls accessible to street art. Brooklyn Industries also has an initiative for artists to use their exterior wall for street-art purposes that would be traditionally seen as graffiti.

How many of these specially designated wall initiatives have you worked on since becoming alderman? There’s two right now, and I’m working on two or three others to get permission. But I’d like to expand it. I’m also working with a gallery to do an art installation on the el platform.

(click to continue reading Even Banksy Has to Follow the Rules in Proco Joe’s Ward | The Blog | Chicago Reader.)

Twitter Updates for 2010-08-20

swanksalot0 comment

Powered by Twitter Tools

Twitter Updates for 2010-08-19

swanksalot0 comment
  • Delusions Abound on Energy Savings http://tinyurl.com/26mya5c #
  • Death in Venice: Who was Geo. H. Macomber and what's he's doing on the Chicago Athletic Club? http://tinyurl.com/2f8pp96 #
  • wait, Rush did a cover of Shapes of Things? Odd. After the David Bowie version? or Yardbirds? #
  • still haven't been to see the space on Wolcott, apparently the current tenant is "being difficult". #
  • Does Salade Niçoise, in your opinion, require tuna? #
  • RT @thefrontloader: The Vaselines are back! Check out "Sex with an X" & "I Hate the 80's" from their upcoming release http://bit.ly/aCRw60 #
  • don't know why I cannot remember, without aided recall, who is who in XY sex-determination system of taxonomy. Granted school was long ago #
  • …but come on brain, you can do better #
  • NYTimes: Mezcal, Tequila’s Smoky, Spicy Cousin http://nyti.ms/dauS7i #
  • Pip and his iPad http://flic.kr/p/8trv4J #
  • Wishbone for lunch meeting FTW #
  • no duh RT @HowardBeckNYT: Twifficiency Spammer Turns Out to Be An Emo 17-Year-Old http://shar.es/03WOh #
  • My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: Johnny Cash (91), Sonny Boy Williamson (86) and The Handsome Family (56) #music http://bit.ly/bb69Xx #
  • Alaska Is Leery of Washington but Feasts on Its Dollars – http://nyti.ms/dhDrdo #
  • New Orleans circa 1937. "1133-1135 Chartres Street." Laundry day in the Quarter. http://tinyurl.com/2vl6f2p #
  • Dr. Laura: criticism of me infringes my first amendment rights http://tinyurl.com/26xdhr5 #
  • RT @copedog: Not only is Empty Bottle still doing honky tonk, they are also answering their phones and being both friendly and helpful! #
  • guess I'm going to Austin for Thanksgiving. Cool, has been a few years… #
  • So is the implication that TE Lawrence was sodomized/raped by his Turkish captors? #LawrenceOfArabia #
  • Fuck it, I guess our neighbors win, and we are putting our place for sale. No good to be sued by assholes. #

Powered by Twitter Tools