Some of you may have been wondering what’s up with the banner. A while back I started changing it periodically, and then more or less regularly, and lately I’ve been changing the banner here at 27th Street just about every day. I’ve been having fun with it and I enjoy the idea of the look of this blog being always in flux. I hope you don’t mind.
I was over at Information Junk and noticed a vintage ad posted featuring a ham radio operation. The first thing that crossed my mind was that I haven’t heard about ham radio operators since….well since the inner-nets were invented. Do people still mess about with radio?
Memphis and Annie are great pals. Annie’s a young dog too, just a few months older than Memphis. They’ve been playing together since shortly after we brought Memphis home in May.
It was very cold this morning, but the dogs didn’t seem to notice or care. I took these shots before their other pals Finnie and Basil joined the crowd.
Hey, what’s going on here? Some of us are trying to lose weight. I haven’t lost 55 lbs by eating lemon shortbread cookies coated with icing sugar…. Tuffy P has to be stopped. Call the sugar and butter police.
2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon icing sugar, sifted
1/4 cup lemon juice
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour, sifted
2 tablespoons corn starch, sifted
2/3 cup icing sugar, extra, sifted
Place the butter and icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8 mintes or until pale and creamy. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the flour and corn starch and beat just until a smooth dough forms. Turn dough onto a lightly foured surface and divide in half. Place each half onto a large piece of baking paper. Form into an 8 inch long log. Wrap well in the paper and refrigerate until firm.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Unwrap one of the dough logs and slice it into rounds. Place onto the prepared baking sheets and bake for 15-18 minutes or until light golden. Remove from the oven and cool in the sheets for 5 minutes. Gently toss the warm shortbreads in the extra icing sugar and allow to cool completely on wire racks.
Spud
Vox and I played four games last night. I started off gangbusters with the first game (illustrated) and thought it would be an easy night, until Vox proved that not to be so, winning the next three in a row, the last one by resignation after a nasty kill. However, it is after all my blog so today I’ll show you the first game. I played black. First I killed Vox’s group in the lower right with an eye-stealing move. Later I attacked his group in the upper left creating the ko (red arrow) that meant life or death to his group. If he won the ko fight, his group was unassailable and if I won, they crumbled. It was an ugly ko for Vox, because so much was at stake, he couldn’t posssibly generate big enough ko threats. I attacked a five-stone group which he was forced to cede, filling the ko and saving his group, but at great cost.
Rossi (AKA Prop Joe)
Beau Jacques
Here are the Foggy Hogtown Boys from right here in Toronto. I remember going to Sneaky Dees to see banjo ace Chris Quinn play with Jughead back in the day.
As all of Toronto knows by now, Adam Giambrone has dropped out of the Mayor’s race in the wake of some unfortunate personal judgement. It had looked as if Giambrone was being touted as the heir apparent to Mayor Miller, but now with him out of the race and trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces, who is going to fill the void on the left. Mr. Pantalone is there, and he’s a well-respected guy, but he’s been oddly quiet so far.
I’m sure the George Smitherman camp are celebrating. Smitherman appears to be the favourite to win the election in the fall, but in the event middle of the road candidates like he and Rocco Rossi split that vote, there must have been some concern that Giambrone could have stolen the election with a strong campaign.
27th Street 