I’m Fed Up With Amazon

December 6, 2019

...ans that I can no longer use their affiliate program on this blog. For the time being I’ve stopped adding new links to Amazon products. For years Amazon provided an ever decreasing affiliate income that, partly, pays the hosting bills for this blog and podcast. I’ve written about my ambivalence about Amazon before back in 2015 and many of you said, at the time, that you didn’t mind. I suspect, in the years since, many of you may have changed your...

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Starbucks Moderne

Mr. Homegrown

December 4, 2019

Design

2 Comments

...n and ignored, Generation X. We’re the last generation that can remember a time of lounging in curlycued, overstuffed post-modern furniture, a time before the gig-slave economy. Now we’re hunched over in misery contemplating eking by on Fiverr and Mechanical Turk while the fat-cat masked billionaires enjoy slices of pie and a cup of coffee on the way to their Eyes Wide Shut parties. Further evidence of the age of the artist or, more likely, that t...

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A Brief History of Cat Art

Mr. Homegrown

July 15, 2019

Animals, Cats

3 Comments

...60-1849) painted a lot more than just cats. His work reached the West at a time when there was an interest in all things Japanese. Cornelius Visscher 1629-1658 was a Dutch Golden Age engraver. His 1657 print Cat Sleeping has a bit of an Albrecht Dürer vibe. Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) is the most famous of this short list of cat artists. He liked to fill the margins of his sketchbooks with cats and, as you can see from the examples above, his wor...

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Sad foot sign, the end is comin’

Mr. Homegrown

June 28, 2019

Design

2 Comments

...all seriousness, our corrupt city government does a very poor job of placemaking. The best they can do is name intersections after people with pathetic little signs posted high up on a signal. You know you’re in trouble when a podiatrist sign is a better placemaking option. Paris LA ain’t. I think we’re going to have to take things into our own hands and build our own Happy Foot Sad Foot Arc de Triomphe. One we do that the People’s Parliament of...

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Solar recipe review: Moroccan Chickpea Tagine (Works on the stovetop, too)

Mrs. Homegrown

August 12, 2016

Food, Recipes, Solar Oven Summer

4 Comments

...spicy that would have counterbalanced the sweetness. But at any rate, next time I will either leave out the raisins or sub them with something a little more tart, like chopped dried apricots. If you don’t have a solar oven all you’d have to do to adapt this recipe is start by sauteing the onions and garlic and carrots till they soften, then add in canned chickpeas and tomatoes and spices. Bring to a simmer and cook, maybe covered, until everything...

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