Votinatin’ and Such

Slowly but surely, the populace becomes attuned to the new-fangled voting technology. I’ve only had one person ask for help with the machine. She was, of course, old. The number of people under 30 that have turned out for the primary at this point in the afternoon: 2. I am of course guessing, since I don’t check the voter registration cards. One other woman under 30 came in, but wanted the donk primary. The donks are not in the same building today, in a departure from tradition. This means that I don’t have to listen to the donk precinct chair, who is a jackass in the fullest sense of the word.

Since the turnout has been so abysmal, I have been reading. I finished up Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. Anansi Boys is of the quality I have come to expect from Neil Gaiman. I’m always interested in non-western mythologies like the Trickster tales from Africa that were liberally borrowed from to provide the bones of the story. All of the various mythologies outside of the classic European tradition are interesting, but source material has been difficult to find. By source material, I mean good retellings of the original stories. The drier versions popular with academics don’t make for very interesting reading. I have some new ones sitting on the shelf that I need to get around to reading.

Instead, I’ve also been reading On Food and Cooking. Fascinating stuff, but dense. Harold McGee is what food geeks want to grow up to be. I can see why Alton Brown recommends his stuff so highly. He is the model from which Alton derives. I’ve already figured out I’m going to have to go back and reread certain portions. I feel like I should be taking notes in case I get quizzed later. The book explains a lot of the why behind the what you’ve always been doing in the kitchen. I assume you’ve been doing more than just using the microwave, right? Right? Well, even if you haven’t, the book explains what the heck is actually going on when food is cooked. There’s some things in here that I can use to be a better cook. Or I could if I wasn’t trapped here watching people go through page after page of judicial candidates that are running unopposed.

Update: 215 people showed up to vote in the primary. That's just pathetic.