Reads, Bants and Eats in the final week of February
Reads
1.) Scrummy little bit of poetry by the breathtaking Sylvia Plath. This was written in 1960 about the upcoming birth of her daughter Frieda and is full of lovely symbolic imagery relating to pregnancy and the myriad, weird thoughts and ideas an expectant mother has. Plath famously had a very tenuous relationship with childbirth and being a mother, this is one of her writings that reflects her positive perspective on the whole malarky. The poem takes the form of two 9-line stanzas, an ode to the gestation period of 9 months. Plath didn’t always seek fun in her writing so this one is particularly enjoyable.
Clownlike, happiest on your hands,
Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,
Gilled like a fish. A common-sense
Thumbs-down on the dodo's mode.
Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,
Trawling your dark as owls do.
Mute as a turnip from the Fourth
Of July to All Fool's Day,
O high-riser, my little loaf.
Vague as fog and looked for like mail.
Farther off than Australia.
Bent-backed Atlas, our travelled prawn.
Snug as a bud and at home
Like a sprat in a pickle jug.
A creel of eels, all ripples.
Jumpy as a Mexican bean.
Right, like a well-done sum.
A clean slate, with your own face on.
Why should you read Sylvia Plath? - Iseult Gillespie
Here I have attached this lovely little 4 and a half minute ted ed video on Syliva Plath I found quite by accident while reading up on her. Possibly I am finding in my own personal struggles with mental health at the moment a sort of visibility and camaraderie in the words of women like Plath and Emily Dickinson and others.
2.) Here lies the internet, murdered by generative AI by Erik Hoel
I love this concept of AI content being pollution. Such a visceral, smelly word it is, this whole AI thing, it’s pervasive. Everything I look at online I am questioning if the source is human or not and that is worrying. People are filtering job applications through AI, artwork is being made, fake writer’s are being conjured up to make cheaper and cheaper works. Distrust and discord being sown right in front of our eyes, and we are enveloped in this concept’s tentacles. I am not afraid of being replaced and murdered by AI bots, but I am afraid for how we humans have a propensity for choosing the most convenient, easy, and destructive behaviours, systems, what have you that lower our intellectual and emotional capacity for good and creativity. and honestly I agree with this writer. He pontificates on whether we are willfully accepting of AI generated content even in it’s most obviously generic, bloated and faulted form because .
““That’s not hardball capitalism. That’s polluting our culture for your own minor profit.””
Bants
My cat has two evil ingrown claws poking into his toe beans. Who knew this was a thing? I did not, probably because I’ve always prided myself on cutting his claws pretty regularly but I guess in the last month or two I forgot somewhere along the line? Life has been tough lately and I have been a bad animal parent. I tried to cut them today and he shredded me to pieces. So off to the vet we trot tomorrow after only bringing one of my dogs in three days ago because he is allergic to grass of all things? Yay vet bills. Consider this the universe warning you friends, trim your pets claws you will pay for it if you don’t.
Picked up this cute mug at Target the other day for $5! What a steal. When I moved to Maui I shipped all my handcrafted (expensive) stunning mugs I had collected over the years in one uninsured box (BIG MISTAKE). The box came with a footprint on it and nothing but dust inside. So now I just can’t afford to buy the good stuff so when I see something that sparks joy and it’s a bargain, I’m on it!
Eats
To be frank friends I’ve been seriously dealing with some depressive lows at the moment and my appetite has been somewhat affected. Cooking had been priority zero right now and I’ve just been grazing on I don’t even know what. I heard someone say, “people speak their hard into the world and make it known” this feels especially true when you have a baby and are seemingly drowning in “just you wait”-isms. Everyone has hardship and nearly everyone wants it validated and to be seen. This is comforting to me.
Anyways here is a sort of recipe I cobbled together when I accidentally made an omelette (my first ever!)
2 eggs beaten with a splash of whole milk and excessive cracked black pepper and some salt.
A dollop of salted Irish butter
Melt in frying pan, dump eggs in and promptly forget you were making scrambled eggs. Turn around after consoling wailing baby about five ish minutes and observe that the edges of the egg mixture are solid all around pan and crinkly.
Think hmmm…quickly sprinkle some feta, chop up old green onion tops that look like right shite but whatever and toss in maybe a handful of chopped cherry tomatoes
Slide spatula fish slicer thing under half of egg pancake and delicately pull over other half. Watch it cool for a few more minutes, say fuck it grab pan and attempt to flip. Let it sizzle on other side for few minutes till it looks browned and voila. Dress with pesto.
I should write a cookbook lmfao