"Deadeye Dick," like "Barnacle Bill," is a nickname for a sailor.  A deadeye is a rounded wooden block, usually bound with rope or iron, and pierced with holes.  The holes receive a multiplicity of lines, usually shrouds or stays, on an old-fashioned sailing ship.  But in the American Middle West of my youth, “Deadeye Dick” was an honorific often accorded to a person who was a virtuoso with firearms.

So it is a sort of lungfish of a nickname.  It was born in the ocean but it adapted to life ashore.

●●●

There are several recipes in this book, which are intended as musical interludes for the salivary glands.  They have been inspired by James Beard’s American Cookery, Marcella Hazan’s The Classic Italian Cookbook, and Bea Sandler’s The African Cookbook.  I have tinkered with the originals, however – so no one should use this novel for a cookbook.

Any serious cook should have the reliable originals in his or her library anyway.

●●●

There is a real hotel in this book, the Grand Hotel Oloffson in Port au Prince, Haiti.  I love it, and so would almost anybody else.  My dear wife Jill Krementz and I have stayed there in the so-called “James Jones Cottage,” which was built as an operating room when the hotel was headquarters for a brigade of United States Marines, who occupied Haiti, in order to protect American financial interests there, from 1915 until 1934.

The exterior of that austere wooden box has subsequently been decorated with fanciful, jigsaw gingerbread, like the rest of the hotel.

The currency of Haiti, by the way, is based on the American collar.  Whatever an American dollar is worth, that is what a Haitian dollar is worth and actual American dollars are in general circulation.  There seems to be no scheme in Haiti, however, for retiring worn-out dollar bills, and replacing them with new ones.  So it is ordinary there to treat with utmost seriousness a dollar which is as insubstantial as a cigarette paper, and which has shrunk to the size of an airmail stamp. 

I found one such bill in my wallet when I got home from Haiti a couple of years ago, and I mailed it back to Al and Sue Seitz, the owners and host and hostess of the Oloffson, asking them to release it into its natural environment.  It could never have survived a day in New York City.

preface, Deadeye Dick, Kurt Vonnegut

DC United wins again giving NE Revs their first loss of the season.  Two nice goals in the first 15 minutes and many, many nice chances after kept the Revs from continuing their unbeaten streak. 

You really should watch the highlights, because there were a ton.

Even DCist is fired up about United and their upcoming matches.

Oh man!  What a game to decide to go to.  Elwood - I'm sorry, but DC United over Chicago Fire was probably the best soccer game I've ever actually attended.  At least that I can remember.  There should be video highlights HERE soon, but maybe not until tomorrow.

DC was on a streak of zero goals in their past three games and they came back in a big way tonight and I was there!! 

After being down 2-0, United came back to tie the game.  Then they fell behind 3-2, came back to tie it again and then they ended up winning 4-3!  Jaime Moreno had a huge game with a goal and two assists and Christian Gomez had two goals.  Eskandarian didn't score, but his dummy run gave Gomez his first goal, and Quaranta, who Jen has soured on lately, had an assist and was the one who was taken down in the box, setting up the PK and DC's first goal.

I'll have pictures soon, and maybe only on the other blog, because it is easier, but what an experience!

I kind of gave up the whole Bobby Canteloupeseed idea.  I planted some seeds, but either not enough water or poor soil quality where I planted them means I have nothing to show for my efforts so far.

My community garden plot, however, is newsworthy.  And I hope to get some pictures up soon.

I went to the garden on Saturday morning for the first time in at least a month.  I was dreading it a bit because I knew it was going to be full of weeds.  Sure enough it was, and I almost just turned around and left, but I had some music - there is nothing like gardening to System of a Down - and so five minutes turned into an hour which turned into two hours and I actually put down 5-8 wheelbarrows full of leaf mulch to cover weeds and distinguish what was something that I had planted and what was an invader.  I lost count of how much mulch I put down because I kept thinking, "this is going to be the last one" and then I kept going back for one more.

I harvested 2 radishes, but nothing else that I've planted is close to being ready.  I also have some carrots, sunflowers, cucumbers, tomatoes, canteloupes, lemons and flax.  The flax gets really tall and thin but has really pretty small blue flowers.  It'll be interesting to see if it goes to seed and what it looks like when it does.

At one point, another gardener came by and complemented me on my garden, which really embarrassed me because I had so many weeds and things were so unorganized.  But I was gracious.  When I started telling her that everything had been started from seeds, and from seeds from actual fruit and veggies and not from seed packs, she was genuinely impressed and said so.  I told her that Jen calls me the mad scientist because of all the containers of dirt I have on the windowsill with seeds planted in it.  I've gotten 5 lemon seeds to sprout as well as numerous tomato seeds and an avocado pit, so my experiments have definitely been worth it.

The time I spent on Saturday really has energized me.  I went back to the garden on Sunday to show Jen what I had done and again last night to quickly put two Home Depot purchased cucumber plants in the ground before the rain came and AGAIN today for more mulching.  I want to go do more right now.  My passion is renewed and feel like this garden can actually become something to be proud of this season, as opposed to my mindset just a few days ago which was, "I really dropped the ball this year and I'll do better next year."

For some reason, a Kramer quote just popped into my head.  It may not apply, but I'll put it here anyway, because I love Seinfeld.

"Mother Nature's a mad scientist, Jerry!"

I guess the point of that is that no matter the state of my garden at any point, I can weed and mulch and amend the soil and beautiful and wonderful things can happen and if I only had a picture now would be the perfect place for it.

My mom used to have a cross-stitched piece in the kitchen that said, "I dig gardening".  I am definitely my parent's son.

I read a bunch of poker blogs today, particularly Chicks With Chips.  I got pretty excited about poker blogging, and as it turns out, I have something poker-related to blog about!

Playing play-money poker on partypoker.com this evening, I bet to the flop with 89s (spades).  The flop came 5s 6s 6h and I had the straight flush draw.  I made it on the turn and got a ton of action from one other player.  Turns out that he made a full house either 55566 or 66655 on the river.  I forget which.  What a cool hand.  I've made 4 of a kind before, but never a straight flush.  Probably because you never put yourself into a situation where you can make one. 

Maybe more poker blogging to come.  Maybe I'll make a royal flush tonight.

At the other blog:  http://naas.blogspot.com

from televisionwithoutpity.com:

"...followed by a most beautiful dream: Bo Bice, singing with Lynyrd Skynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama," which song I've been dreading, and now I don't even know why, because it is fantastic. He's glowing with joy the entire time, and everybody in the house started crying because of the immense joy on his face, and it was one of the best things I've ever seen.

And for some reason, that's when I realized he would lose. Which is rough, because I've been assuming he'd win for a couple of weeks, even though I knew it was dumb to think that, and I came up with a million reasons why he wouldn't, but it turns out there were closer to five million. Randy talks a whole pile of nothing, Paula talks a small mess of crazy, and Simon approves this Final Two. A very tall Brit with a good accent brings out the results, and everyone looks very, very nice, and Bo about starts crying right now. Seacrest takes his sweet-ass time opening the envelope, and the screaming starts, and she cries without tears. But come on, she's clearly crying. I think it's a baby pageant facial situation, where maybe she's just trained not to cry when she's got makeup on. Anyway: Carrie wins."

Not that I really care about American Idol, but my wife told me that people were making Bo v Carrie about blue state v red state.  I love making things about blue state v red state.  So I am sad that Bo lost. 

Also, Phil Anselmo would never win American Idol, so perhaps Bo is the closest it might ever come to that.