This short little underappreciated film fills in the plot space between Pitch Black and Riddick. I think I enjoyed it more than the second movie. Directed by Peter Chung (creator of Aeon Flux), it’s well-paced, it’s got an interesting plot, and it’s a fun little movie (it’s about 40 minutes). It also addresses some plot questions left open by Riddick, even the Director’s Cut.
The animation is, of course, beautiful.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a special place in my heart. It is certainly one of my favorite five books of all time, and was particularly influential in forming my twisted sense of humor and the world.
It chronicles the adventures of Arthur Dent, normal human, who is catapulted into a weirder universe than he could possibly have imagined, guided by his friend Ford Prefect (a perfectly normal name) who turned out to be not from Guildford after all but from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, upon the untimely destruction of the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
The movie is coming out, which looks good, but this is your last chance to read the books uncolored by the vision of a Hitchhiker’s Guide produced by someone other than Douglas Adams.
And that’s all I’m going to tell you. The plans are on display in the filing department.
Buy The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from Amazon.
Every Friday, Amazon has a Friday Sale, in which they mark down 120 or so items.
I usually browse the sale to see if there’s anything interesting. If I find something that’s similar to something I’ve used before, or that I’d consider buying, or that’s just a really great deal, I’ll list it here.
Today, it’s the Camelbak. I have a few of these, but not this model. They’re great for any sort of outdoor exercise (it’s almost warm enough here to start biking again), or just for walking around. This one has a few pockets, but not a lot of storage space, so it’ll encourage you to stay light. It holds 2 liters of water - their newest design is very easy to fill.
Harold McGee knows food, and he’s been sending me to bed with dreams of long-chain amylose starches.
If you’ve ever wondered why food behaves the way it does in the kitchen, this is a great resource. It’s not a cookbook per se (and not the cookbook from Per Se - we’ll get to that later), but it is an incredibly detailed examination of why food behaves the way it does, of what kinds of common foods there are, and how this all fits together to make the art of the kitchen.
This second revised and expanded edition nearly qualifies as a “tome”. Every section has been improved and modernized over the previous cut. It is beautifully illustrated with hand-drawn diagrams. The chapters are comprehensive, organized by food category in the beginning - milk, eggs, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, grains/seeds/legumes - and moving to techniques - breads, sauces, confections, and alcohols.
It fills a middle ground on the science. He talks freely in chemical terms (much more so than most other food writers), and it should be understandable to most intelligent readers. I found myself wanting more discussion of the actual chemistry sprinkled throughout instead of bunched up at the end into two small chapters. (and if you know of a book that covers food chemistry from the chemistry side, please send it along).
McGee is a pleasure to read. He clearly loves to cook, and he clearly loves to share.
When I was in high school, there were TV ads for a vibrating handle that took Gillette Atra blades, called the “Freedom Blade”. The vibration was supposed to make your hair stand up on end, so it could be more easily cut close to the skin. I don’t think they sold very many of them, or at least, the commercials didn’t last long. A few years ago, I heard a rumor that they’d been bought by Gillette, and now there’s the M3 Power, the latest in their line of triple-bladed Mach 3 razors.
The Mach 3 has never been the closest of shaves, but it excels at comfort. It’s possible that I’ve never cut myself once in many years of using one. It does very well with long swaths and 3-day growth, but I always finish up with a Sensor for closeness. The M3 Power does better than its predecessor, and it’s even more comfortable. It is particularly good around the corners of my mouth, which are hard to get at.
The vibration is a small thing, but I find that it has a noticeable effect. Given a choice, I’ll take it.