aartipaarti

My friend Jamie Moniz is running the marathon to support her father-in-law, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (cancer of the plasma cell) this year. She and her husband Brian have been wonderful friends, joining Bren out at Burning Man, helping to build the impossible dome we’ll be enjoying this summer, generally being supportive of [...]

Interesting article on Slate, exploring the debate within (and without) the vegan community about whether vegans should eat honey. On the one hand, the harvesting of honey seems to cause no apparent harm to the bees. It’s not like we’re harvesting their eggs or their milk. Or is it? The article points that commercial honey-harvesting [...]

At least, this is what I have figured out. In addition to the ingredients, you’ll need the following hardware: 1) A rolling pin. I use the Indian kind, which you can find at Indian shops. It’s made from one piece of wood, no revolving bits, and it’s much narrower than the French/Western kind. It’s very [...]

I know you’re waiting with baited breath for the Chapati How-To. I’m writing it was fast as I can! In the meantime, here’s a little diversion. It’s indie pop-queen Feist on Sesame Street with a modified version of her ubiquitous “1,2,3,4″. I always get her face confused with Charlotte Gainsbourg. They both have that long [...]

Isn’t it amazing how a particular smell can do a 180 on your attitude? Even if it’s just the MEMORY of a smell? Try it right now. Take a deep breath and imagine the smell of chocolate-chip cookies baking in the oven. Drink it in for at least 5 seconds. Now open your eyes and [...]

A little peek at the post I’m working on. Hint: it’s food-related! -x-aarti

Earthquake! It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been here 5 years and today’s 5.4 quake was my very first! First off, don’t worry, we are absolutely, completely fine. The epicenter (in Chino Hills) is about 40 miles away, so we really felt the least of it, but even so, Bren said this was a pretty [...]

As Kuv pointed out months ago, Tom Waits went on tour this year… a rare occurrence, and therefore one that inspires Waits addicts to great lengths to see him. Bren is one of the biggest Waits fans I know, closely followed by his brother Jed, and we have Bren’s dad to thank for it, since [...]

It’s hard to get to a place where you can finally see the bottom of the pile of things you have to accomplish in order to feel… accomplished. Given that neither my sweet man nor I have conventional career paths (whatever that means anymore), we’ve always had to juggle work life with dream life. In [...]

Hasbro (the maker of Scrabble) is suing Scrabulous, a free online knock-off of the legendary game, and is demanding that Facebook pull it off the website. Full disclosure: I’m biased against Big Business I suppose, as much as anyone is. I’m also biased toward the creators of Scrabulous, two brothers from India (yippee!). And while [...]