"Them crackers are salty and they made me thirsty."

Says tiny little Mickey:

That's Robert Blake. I'm reading his obituary this morning, "Robert Blake, ‘Baretta’ Star Acquitted in Wife’s Murder, Dies at 89/His film and TV career began with 'Our Gang' comedies and was highlighted by a performance as a mass killer in 'In Cold Blood.' But he led a tempestuous life" (NYT).

"Tonight, he perfectly panfried two veal chops the size of snowshoes and served them with risotto and pre-natal zucchini."

"Sage was used, and, as is his habit, he took great care spooning the life-giving drippings onto the meat. Like always, we ate at the table, which was set and had candles on it.... We usually sit down for dinner between 9:30 and ten. I like to eat until I hate myself.... I once ate an entire 12-ounce can [of Aunt Ruby’s peanuts] in one sitting, hoping I’d get eternally sick of them, the way I did with Goldfish crackers when I was 6. No such luck, though. Aunt Ruby’s peanuts are my weakness. I cannot resist them, and so I have to do things like eat salads and fish and diet Jell-O in order to fit them into my life. I have to walk a minimum of 15 miles a day and do these sad little exercises all morning otherwise I would be massively overweight, which is something I like on other people, just not on myself."

From "David Sedaris Eats Until He Hates Himself/'Too much lunch puts me in a stupor, but at night, I really take the gloves off'" by David Sedaris (Grub Street).

I love David Sedaris. I even bought Aunt Ruby's peanuts in the middle of reading the article. Of course, I'm reading his new book — that is, I'm listening to the audiobook for the 4th time. Chapter 9 — "Highfalutin" — was recorded at the show he did here in Madison, so I am personally, minusculely, present in the recording.

Hardware.

Crackers.

Acorns are a superfood fad, and some people are worrying about squirrels starving.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Formed at Seoul's Yonsei University, the nascent Acorn Rangers group polices the bucolic campus, scaring off other humans from swiping squirrel food.... Strolling across campus, Ms. Park, a junior, sprung into action after spotting an acorn assailant: a woman in her early 60s, clutching a plastic bag stuffed with the tree nuts.

"The squirrels will starve!" barked Ms. Park, her voice booming so loudly that other acorn hunters -- human ones -- scurried away. The two argued for nearly an hour....

Over the past five years, there has been a fivefold increase in criminal charges for illegal gathering of "forest products," according to the Korea Forest Service. The few violators ever caught in the act face up to five years in prison or a maximum fine of roughly $40,000....

At Bukhansan National Park, a popular hiking destination in Seoul, a team of 200 employees and volunteers are now deployed to catch nut thieves. One year the confiscated acorns totaled nearly 450 pounds, such a large haul that they used a helicopter to redistribute the loot for the squirrels....

In Wisconsin state parks, the rule is: "[Y]ou may pick edible fruits, edible nuts, wild mushrooms, wild asparagus and watercress for personal consumption." Personal consumption. Not to start an acorn powder business.

We have a huge oak tree in our yard. We can get acorns so easily I wouldn't even use the word "forage."

At the Sunflower Sunset Café...

... I invite comments on all topics.

And please consider the the Althouse Portal to Amazon, where you can buy various things. I've been enjoying Jilz Crackerz, but I can't explain the exorbitant price.

"Do you have a medical marijuana card?"

"Switchel: the new (but really old) apple cider [vinegar!] drink hipsters can't get enough of."

"Consumed by woodsman pioneers in the 1800s, this tart, effervescent drink is threatening to dethrone kombucha as the next hip health trend – and I approve." 

Oh, no. I got that link from Meade, who makes his own vinegar and ginger drink, and pronounces it delicious. This trend of drinking vinegar... I don't even like seeing other people do it. The author of the linked article says: "I love vinegar, pretty much every kind I’ve ever tried. I’ve been known to drink pickle juice out of an empty jar of pickles...."

Here's the product that you may have walked right by at Whole Foods but that Meade has bought and savored. Here it is in limeade, which has Meade's name right there in it.

IN THE COMMENTS: Terry said: "Drink tap water instead. It goes good with crackers. Good ol' crackers...." And I said:

"Drink tap water instead." That's what I said to Meade yesterday. It's one thing to eat a wide variety of foods, but one should be careful about drinking. You should assume water. Drink water. Anything other than water should meet a high standard. Don't just down sodas and juices and other concoctions. Liquids are too quick, too easy. Food is more of an encounter. You have to chew, to really experience some in-mouth moments. But things consumed in liquid form are facilitated by your instinct for hydration, your basic need for water. So drink water... unless you have a really good reason to taint your water with other substances. You do not need variety in your drinks. You should drink water and focus your search for flavor and excitement on food.

As for crackers, crackers are terribly dangerous. You can gain a lot of weight from crackers. They're like cookies, the way you eat them impulsively and lose track of the number as one leads to another. But you think they're not like cookies, because they're not dessert. That makes them seem neutral, like water. But they have calories. Beware of crackers.

(Click the "crackers" tag and scroll to see why Terry said "Good ol' crackers.")

"There should be more reflection about the source of our sense of the 'ratedness' of a movie."

"'The Big Lebowski' was mentioned [as overrated] by someone who is probably thinking of the cult status it achieved long after it came out. It wasn't considered very good originally. I remember seeing it in the theater when it came out, in spite of the not-so-good reviews, and seeing good and bad in it. Later, people found the good in a movie that hadn't gotten enough credit when it first came out. It became a cult favorite. If you then come along after all that, you may think you're going to see something wonderful, and when you see the bad that led to the original mixed reviews, you'll say the film is 'overrated.' So: what is your reference point? Where did you come in on the time line?"

That's something I wrote at the end of a long conversation over at Facebook (started by my son John with the question "What do you think is the most overrated movie?").

AND: Here's the picnic scene from "It's a Gift":



"Ah! Crackers! Good old crackers!"

ALSO: A good Mother's Day quote: "Those were my mother's feathers!"/"Never knew your mother had feathers."

Althouse unfair to F. Scott Fitzgerald?

Midway through my journey of isolating and writing about sentences from "The Great Gatsby," I find myself confronted by one creeley23 — a commenter within the confines of this Althouse blog — who says: "Hmm... rereading the first ten pages of Gatsby I see that Ann is picking klunky, atypical sentences out of the text."

I have chosen things like: "Sometimes a shadow moved against a dressing-room blind above, gave way to another shadow, an indefinite procession of shadows, that rouged and powdered in an invisible glass." And: "A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea."

But, in my defense, I have also chosen: "A breeze stirred the gray haze of Daisy’s fur collar." And: "Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry."

All over the world, women are self-comforting...

... grasping their skirt hems and rolling, rolling them upward, absent-mindedly.

Meanwhile, women eat cupcakes, cupcakes, which were ranked among the 10 most overrated things in the world, which made me say:

The only reason cupcakes are popular is because people have forgotten actual cake, which is moist and tender. Cupcakes have way too much edge... and that fluting doubles the already-too-much edge. But if you never eat real cake, you don't notice. It's like how good crackers are if you never have bread or how good a popsicle is if you never get a nice big dish of ice cream.

But people won't go back to cake, because you can't get a slice of cake and carry it around with you on the street. How would it be presented? It can't be sliced and left out on the shelves like cupcakes. You'd need some saran wrap or something to keep it from getting dried out.

So here, lonely ladies of America, here's your pre-dried-out cake: cupcake.

It sounds like something an old-fashioned guy would call you if he thinks you're pretty, so maybe you're thinking about him as you walk down the street licking icing and choking down dry cake... and tears.

At the Painted Crackers Café...

... come on, why didn't you think of making a painting of crackers?

(Here's the whole painting, "Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits" ("Interno metafisico con biscotti") by Giorgio de Chirico — at the Chazen Museum in Madison, Wisconsin.)

"[T]here’s more to life than crackers. But not much more."

Things said to Karma.

"What? Did you think we got you crackers?"

Crackers.

What a charmingly low-key family! I really enjoyed watching that after watching — and being told to love — this.

A few special, edible/drinkable gift ideas.

Chocolate.

Coffee.

Cabernet.

Marmelade.

Althouse's favorite crackers.

Jelly beans.

Caramels.

Truffle & salt.

Fever Tree ginger beer.

Here they are, with laptops, salami, and crackers...

It's the bloggers! They're covering the Libby trial.

All day long during the trial, one Firedoglake blogger is on duty to beam to the Web from the courthouse media room a rough, real-time transcript of the testimony...

With a yeasty mix of commentary, invective and inside jokes, Fire-doglake [sic] has seen its audience grow steadily during the trial, reaching 200,000 visitors and requiring an additional computer server on its busiest days — like Tuesday, with the revelation that Mr. Cheney would not appear....

Even as they exploit the newest technologies, the Libby trial bloggers are a throwback to a journalistic style of decades ago, when many reporters made no pretense of political neutrality. Compared with the sober, neutral drudges of the establishment press, the bloggers are class clowns and crusaders, satirists and scolds....

In the courthouse, the old- and new-media groups have mixed warily at times. Mainstream reporters have shushed the bloggers when their sarcastic comments on the testimony drowned out the audio feed.

I haven't had the time or inclination to follow the detailed blog coverage of the Libby trial, but I really would like to read some detailed coverage of the dynamic between the professional journalists and the bloggers who get to have so much more fun and show their emotions. Is the static between the two groups manifested only in the form of repressed, repressive shushing? The real reporters can't express much of what they feel about the bloggers, who must be irritating the hell out of them, can they? It wouldn't be professional. Plus, the bloggers would blog about it!

Well, Jane Hamsher is there, and she's the producer of "Natural Born Killers," a movie about media (and murder). I'd like to see the movie about life in that little courthouse media room. No, the script needn't depict bloody mayhem. I like a nice dark satire myself. Or a documentary (if it's not too late). But a romantic comedy would do just as well. Do you want the girl or the boy to be the blogger?