Today marks the 233rd anniversary of the day the US Continental Congress voted unanimously for Independence from Great Britain. John Adams wrote to Abigail,

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even although We should rue it, with I trust in God We shall not. [transcription from Pastor and People]

Two days later the actual document of their declaration went to the printer, and we wound up celebrating that day thanks to a lifetime of campaigning by one T. Jefferson (up to and including his and Adams’s well-coordinated deaths on July 4, 1826).

But I always like to give a little pump of the fist for this, the day the Founders thought would go down in history. Because while life may be nasty, brutish, and short, and while “mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed,” government can and does sometimes do wonderful, astonishing things.

I’m a lot more attached to the Constitution [Madison and Hamilton party!] than I am to the Declaration of Independence, but you can trust me when I say that this weekend there will be a little bit of 1776, a little bit of John Adams, and a whole lot of revolutionary geekery.

Dear California,

I really need to stop reading Calitics, because the more I read about your politics, the less I understand. No wonder Prop 8 was upheld; we have an absolutely insane system of government in this state. Apparently the State Parks aren’t going to be closed after all; that is, it seems, a measure that Governors threaten to undertake whenever the Legislature isn’t working fast enough on the budgeting process.

But Schwarzenegger has threatened to ::shut down the entire state government:: if the legislature doesn’t put together a budget this week; they were also threatening to do that if the ridiculous measures in the special election last month didn’t pass.

This is my shout of frustration into the universe at the entire situation. I really love you, dear home state, and it would be nice if we didn’t have a “Constitution” that can be amended randomly by popular vote (my personal favorite part is the bit where it’s unconstitutional to eat horse meat because there were like 50 people riled up about it in the 80s and nobody wanted to be pro-horse-eating in the general election), a set of judges elected by popular vote, a legislature too tied up in special interest money to get anything done, and, well, ::Arnold Schwarzenegger:: as the governor.

With friendly irritation,
Molly

—–

Dear Equality California,

I was really impressed with your letter of several weeks ago that included as a call to action not just a request for funds but a sign-up for volunteering. However, I wish I had heard something from you on that topic since the confirmation email. Since I’m canvassing on Saturday, I’d really like to know where to meet the rest of the group, if you don’t mind.

Hoping to hear from you,
Molly

—–

Dear Pride,

Wow you are approaching fast. 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, is it? I am not marching this year (going to the Opera with my grandparents instead, which kind of cracks me up) but I sure am looking forward to this year’s annual Pride Concert at First Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco.

As you may know, Bob, the concert is the Thursday and Friday before Pride, June 25 and 26, at 8pm. It’s going to feature the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco and the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Freedom Band, and have special guests the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

And there is still room in the program for anyone who wants to advertise.

Love,
Molly

—–

Dear Iran,

Um, please get that recount/revote underway as soon as possible. I’m worried about you, dear.

Solicitously,
Molly

—–

Dear President Obama,

You want me to have the energy to be angry at you now too? Over the not-so-gray-areas of DATD and DOMA? Really?

With resignation,
Molly

—–

Dear Self,

You were a much more scintillating conversationalist before you replaced your nightly watching of the news with nightly watching of Star Trek.

Love,
You

May has been an interesting month. I’ve had a lot of projects wrapping up, which has meant a lot of stress. But I’ve also done some really fun stuff. You’ve already heard a bit about London, but here are some other things that happened in May, illustrated.

From May fun, 2009

The weekend after I got back from London, I went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom with some friends. It’s now a totally different place than it was as Marine World Africa USA when I was a kid. This is actually nice, as when it was Six Flags Marine World it was kind of depressing. They had the rides in front and all the animals in back, and they clearly cared a whole lot less about the animals. They’ve now got the whole park much more integrated, and they’re taking much better care of the animals.

From May fun, 2009

Last weekend, Naomi graduated from UC Berkeley, and we had a lot of great family visiting. I hosted my parents and had a great time with them Saturday morning before they went back up to Willits. We also got to meet Naomi’s boyfriend David’s family. We had dinner together at an Italian restaurant in Berkeley, which had an incredible broken typewriter in the parking lot…

From May fun, 2009

This weekend, on the advice of my dear friend Erin, I took an introductory letterpress class at the San Francisco Center for the Book. I’m so excited about learning more! I made rather a lot of these post cards, so if you want mail from me, please send me an email (meaplet[at]gmail[dot]com) with your postal address and you will get your very own bleak Stoppardian card!

As some of you may know, I recently returned from a trip to visit Ariel in London. We did a whole lot of tourism, but not necessarily the most traditional kind. For instance, while we did go to Buckingham Palace, it was not for the changing of the guards, and while we did go to the Tower, we spent a lot of time being enthusiastic about the Princes In the Tower and the Overbury Scandal and did not see the crown jewels at all.

In general, there were three main themes to our tourism: (1) the Undead (2) Renaissance court scandals (3) Mocking the Victorians. About points (2) and (3) there may be more later. For now, I present a portion of the Molly and Ariel Undead Tour of London: Zombies Wilde and Bentham.

Zombie Oscar Wilde can be found near the Charing Cross tube station, Trafalgar Square, and Covent Gardens. He is officially a statue called “A Conversation With Oscar Wilde.” Created by Maggie Hambling in 1998, the original intention of the statue, as far as I can tell, was to provide an interactive statue, a bench that one can sit on and have conversations with Wilde. The base of the statue reads “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars,” which perhaps implies that this particular incarnation of Wilde is spending his time on the sidewalk looking up out of a determined effort to live out his afterlife as a quotation, just as he lived out his life.

But the bench looks like a coffin and Wilde looks like he is decomposing, from the shape of the body, to the oxidized metal that forms him, to the fact that there are, mysteriously, starfish-shaped bits in his head. So, despite the flamboyant expression and the green carnation, the net effect is really rather creepy. When I saw the flamboyant statue of Wilde in Dublin I didn’t think that there could be a creepier incarnation (the Dublin statue looks like he is about to mock or molest the passerby). It turns out I was wrong.

Zombie Jeremy Bentham is something completely different. Rather than being a creepy zombie-like statue, Zombie Bentham is in fact the preserved skeleton of philosopher Jeremy Bentham, dressed in his clothing and in his accustomed position of thought. He wears a wax head, his actual skull being stored safely in the UCL archives. Bentham’s “Auto-Icon” was created according to a mandate in his will, and has been at University College London since 1850.

Bentham was one of the founders of the branch of ethics called “Utilitarianism,” which holds that the most ethical course of action is that which does good for the most people. It’s one of those philosophical arguments that sounds sensible at first, until you find scary modern utilitarians arguing that eugenics is reasonable and that one should blow up fat men in caves. (As usual I am constructing straw men for my own entertainment. Forgive me. They were delicious. So sweet and so cold.)

For a long time I asked myself: what is the purpose, from a Utilitarian perspective, of requiring that your body be preserved in a glass case with your name on it and put in a place for people to visit? It seems like rather a lot of work that doesn’t really do anyone much good. Having now visited the Auto Icon, I can say for certain: Zombie Jeremy Bentham has high utility, because he is AWESOME. I was giddier with Zombie Bentham than I was at any other time in my trip, despite seeing the Rosetta Stone on the same day.

Some Bentham myths I learned as a philosophy undergrad, which the Bentham exhibit at UCL claim are false:

• Rumor: Students from King’s College once stole Bentham’s head and used it as a football.
  Fact: This never happened. UCL stored his head for safekeeping for a different reason entirely.
  Response: Why do you make life less fun, UCL? And what ::are:: you protecting his skull from, if it is not dangerous football players from other academic institutions?
• Rumor: Zombie Bentham, as a founder of UCL, attends all university council meetings and votes in the case of ties. He almost always votes in favor of the position.
  Fact: Bentham wasn’t actually a founder of UCL, just a muse for the founders. He doesn’t vote. He is a zombie. That is ridiculous.
  Response: If Bentham was not a founder of UCL, why does the tag under his name on the auto-icon claim that he was a founder of the institution? And if he doesn’t vote, how do you resolve ties?
• Rumor: Molly claimed while visiting zombie Bentham that he was her first true love.
  Fact: Why would you think this? That is nonsense. She clearly said that they had a longstanding casual relationship that bore no reflection on primary relationships in her life. Obviously.

To find Zombie Bentham go to either the Euston Square or Warren Street Tubes. Enter UCL on Gower Street between Grafton Way and University Street. Follow the signs to the South Cloisters, enter the building. There is a map inside that will direct you to Bentham, who is at the end of the hall.

Alternately, you can make a full day of your zombie travels by walking north through the city, starting with Oscar Wilde, taking a break to visit the mummies at the British Museum, and finally wrapping up your afternoon with Jeremy Bentham. Trust me, if you like the undead it’s the ideal way to pass an afternoon.

Like most everyone else, I’ve spent the last week fixated on the Swine Flu/H1N1/whatever the cool kids are calling it today. I’ve been reading NPR’s Flu Shots blog, gossiping about #swineflu on Twitter, and speculating with not a little anxiety about that international trip I’ve got planned for next week.

But, geeky soul that I am, I’m a lot more excited about the epidemiological side of things than I am panicked by them. Perhaps I’ve been a little bit ::too:: excited by them, as exemplified by a few of my tweets earlier this week:

Does anyone want to be a cytokine with me for Halloween this year? We can storm things and kill them!

If Chuck Norris got swine flu, the resulting cytokine storm would kill everyone on the planet. He would survive.

I’ve been considering re-reading Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book, but fortunately my aunt has loaned me John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza, which is much more useful for my purposes. For one thing, it’s brought home exactly how disgusting cytokine storm deaths are. My enthusiasm is dampened, for the better.

Another useful lesson from the book is that while it now looks like things on the H1N1 front are slowing down and coming under control, it’s entirely possible that we could see it come back in a stronger form later this year. That’s what happened in 1918, when authorities mostly ignored a minor bug that seemed to be going around among soldiers in the spring and sent them home. It wasn’t until September of that year that young people started dying because their own immune systems were confused and attacking any tissue they could find.

As my aunt (who is, incidentally, a doctor) explains it–catch the flu now if you can, because it’s going to mutate. If it mutates to be more mild, than you won’t lose much by having the flu now. But if it mutates for the worse, getting immune now could be one of the best things you do for yourself.

(Or, if you prefer geekier descriptions of what you can do to keep yourself safe–level up your immune system by fighting the monster now. It won’t take too many HPs and gives you a crucial defense come the boss level.)

Last week was not so good for inalienable rights, was it?

The week started out with Rush Limbaugh at CPAC claiming that “We believe that the preamble to the Constitution contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, Liberty, Freedom. And the pursuit of happiness.” Which is all well and good, except for the bitter reminder that these rights (with the exception of freedom) are outlined in the Declaration and not the Constitution. (On the other hand, I’m a pretty big fan of the formation of a more perfect union, the establishment of justice, the insurance of domestic tranquility, provision for the common defense, promotion of general welfare and the security of the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. Schoolhouse Rocks, anyone?)

Limbaugh went on to explain that “We conservatives think all three are under assault.” And you know what, I generally disagree with Rush Limbaugh, but this is one case where I definitely agree with him. After all, later last week in arguing on the pro-Prop 8 side in Strauss v. Horton, Ken Starr claimed that inalienable rights are those that cannot be taken away without appropriate process and accordingly that in the State of California, a vote by a simple majority of the electorate constituted appropriate process. This argument had me quaking in my rights-loving boots, and I can only imagine Limbaugh was equally concerned, right?

And you know what else happened last week and the week before? The Justice Department released the Yoo memos, which the Bush administration relied upon, and which claims that rights under the First and Fourth Amendments to the US Constitution can be overturned at the will of the President for anyone assumed to be a terrorist. (Terrorists still, fortunately, can rely upon their Second-Amendment rights and are welcome to form a militia if they chose.) At least those were overturned 5 days before Bush left office, so that’s a front where I don’t currently have to worry about that particular subset of things I like to think of as my rights as a US Citizen.

So clearly I am concerned about rights, and I’m concerned about rights slipping away. I too value Life, Liberty, Freedom [to Marry Whom I Choose, for instance?], and the Pursuit of Happiness. So maybe I too am a conservative? Clearly Bush, Yoo and Starr are not, by Limbaugh’s definition.

In honor of my twenty-fifth birthday, a few words on adulthood from qwantz.com.

Also of moderate interest is the fact that I’m celebrating 25 on 2/5.

On the topic of the cupcakes, do I have an option of taking good pictures in bad lighting that doesn’t involve purchasing an external flash?

This is sort of turning into a food blog, isn’t it? I keep starting posts about other things and not finishing them… But trust me, you want to eat this, so you will forgive me.

Tea Curry
Serves probably 3-4 (or in my case serves 1, 3-4 times)

1/2 medium yellow onion, diced smallish (about 1/2 inch)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 carrot, thinly sliced
1/3 zucchini, thinly sliced
1 medium russet potato, diced smallish
1/2 small block of firm tofu, pressed and diced smallish
1/4 small head purple cabbage, about 1 inch dice
1/2 red bell pepper, in strips
Handful of baby spinach
1 can coconut milk
probably a tsp or so of curry powder (I am addicted to S&B Curry Powder in particular)
3 dried red peppers, minced
1 bay leaf
1 bag black tea, or 1 tsp loose leaf
1 dash cinnamon
1 dash allspice
salt to taste

-
Rice

Put some canola oil in a pan on the lowest temperature. Toss in your onions and garlic and cook until they start to turn translucent. Add the carrot, zucchini, bell pepper and potato. Let them cook a bit and then add the coconut milk and bay leaf. Add the curry powder and the red pepper.

When the coconut milk starts to boil, throw in the tofu. Rip open your tea bag and throw the tea in. And some cinnamon. And some allspice. A little bit later, add in the cabbage. This is probably a good time to start cooking your rice. Put the spinach in a couple minutes into the rice cooking. Serve the curry over the rice.

I’ve been at my parents’ house for several days now, and my primary accomplishment in that time (other than the minimal number of showers and the maximal hours of sleeping I have accomplished) has been holiday cooking.

On Wednesday night I made minestrone soup and latkes for a family Chanukah dinner. On Christmas, in addition to my traditional ownership of the mashed potatoes, I made some tasty garlic brussel sprouts and these rosemary cookies, which were a smashing success. In fact, I still have a second log of dough ready to slice and bake in some exciting time in the near future.

Fresh off of my success, today I jumped on the gingerbread bandwagon, with a bit less success.

First mistake: having looked at a few dozen cookie recipes in the last couple days, I decided to make these crisps on the mistaken assumption that they were gingery. It wasn’t until I was almost done with the flour mixture that I noticed that they were called Cinnamon-sugar crisps and not ginger crisps. Whoops?

I threw a couple dashes each of powdered cloves and ginger into the flour mixture for good measure, only to make my second mistake. More enthusiastic shaking than neccessary resulted in me finding powdered ginger on my shirt and (painfully) up my nose. Ouch!

When the mixture was pulled together I found the final mistake, on the part of the recipe author and not me. The recipe called for rolling out the cookies and cutting them up with a cookie cutter, but I had a sticky substance a bit thicker than cake batter and nowhere near the thickness of dough that would respond to a rolling pin.

I made a small test batch and determined that the consistency was nearer “muffin-top” than “cookie”, and so I made yet another last minute swap. And now I’ve got a dozen chewy, gingery, molasses-y muffins, which is definitely a good outcome in my book.

Recipe:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used bakers’ sugar)
1 egg
2/3 cup dark molasses
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract

Cream the butter with a blender and add the granulated sugar. Keep blending until it stops being butter-sugar crumbs and becomes a creamy stubstance. Add the egg, the molasses, and the vanilla and almond extracts, blending each ingredient in before adding the next.

2 1/2 cups pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp powdered cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda (reading error on my part; the original called for 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp powdered cloves
1 tsp powdered ginger

Sift dry ingredients together. Slowly mix into the wet ingredients.

Heat oven to 350°F. Find some muffin tins and paper liners. Put a scoop of batter in each tin to fill it approximately 3/4 full. Bake for a little over 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

See, even when you mess up a recipe, you can wind up with something tasty!