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The Omnivore's 100

From the Boston Globe via Very Good Taste, a food meme.

I know everyone did this forever ago, but I dropped off the face of the blog-earth, and still think this is interesting enough to post. Here are the instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Books I've read: 2008

Books in bold are ones I've especially liked:

1. The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly
2. Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde
3. Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak
4. Audrey, Wait!, Robin Benway (ARC)
5. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
6. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, Brock Clarke
7. How to Be Bad, e. lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle (ARC)
8. Bewitching Season, Marissa Doyle (ARC)
9. The Last of the High Kings, Kate Thompson (ARC)
10. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde
11. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Barry Lyga
12. Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl
13. In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
14. The Memory of Running, Ron McLarty
15. What the Dickens, Gregory Maguire
16. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
17. How Reading Changed My Life, Anna Quindlen
18. Secrets of My Hollywood Life, Jen Calonita
19. The Singer of All Songs, Kate Constable
20. The Queen of Cool, Cecil Castellucci
21. Rash, Pete Hautman
22. The Waterless Sea, Kate Constable
23. The Tenth Power, Kate Constable
24. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
25. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
26. Twisted, Laurie Halse Anderson
27. Peeps, Scott Westerfeld
28. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
29. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
30. The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
31. Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me, Ben Karlin
32. The Contract with God Trilogy, Will Eisner
33. Lady Friday, Garth Nix
34. Once Upon a Time in the North, Philip Pullman
35. The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
36. My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
37. Odd and the Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman
38. Ever, Gail Carson Levine
39. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
40. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
41. City of Ashes, Cassandra Clare
42. Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
43. Rapunzel's Revenge, Shannon and Dean Hale
44. Squids Will Be Squids, John Scieszka
45. Y: The Last Man: Girl on Girl, Brian K. Vaughan
46. Y: The Last Man: Paper Dolls, Brian K. Vaughan
47. Y: The Last Man: Kimono Dragons, Brian K. Vaughan
48. Y: The Last Man: Motherland, Brian K. Vaughan
49. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares
50. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, Ann Brashares
    
51. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & the Olympians Book 4), Rick Riordan
52. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood, Ann Brashares
53. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood, Ann Brashares
54. The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci
55. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
56. The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary E. Pearson
57. Suite Scarlett, Maureen Johnson
58. Y: The Last Man: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan
59. The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Michael Scott
60. Kitty Kitty, Michele Jaffe
61. Girl at Sea, Maureen Johnson
62. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
63. The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl, Book 6), Eoin Colfer
64. Just Listen, Sarah Dessen
65. Breaking Up, Aimee Friedman and Christine Norrie
66. A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liaa
67. The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
68. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
69. The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
70. Something Rotten, Alan Gratz
71. The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
72. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell
73. Physik (Septimus Heap: Book Three), Angie Sage
74. Paper Towns, John Green
75. How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier
76. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
77. Physik, Angie Sage
78. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
79. Graceling, Kristin Cashore
80. Ironside, Holly Black
81. The Book of the Unknown, Jonathon Keats

From the internets!

Here are two things from the internets that you must see.

First, a comprehensive list of problems solved by MacGyver. And second, well, let's just let this one speak for itself:

He returns!

July 15th.

Raytheon Red is soooo last year

So I was manning my employer's table at a career fair during a regional meeting of the Society for Women Engineers this afternoon. As a participant in the meeting I was entitled to one of the gift tote bags that were handed out. Along with the standard crappy pen, notepad and lens cleaner, I was dismayed? amused? bemused? to find this:

For those of you who are slightly confused, it's a pretty silver gift bag with sparkly bead dangles and, inside, nail polish and lipstick. Both in "Raytheon Red."

It seems to me that if we are to be taken seriously as female scientists and engineers, possibly our organizations should arrange for other gifts? My employer had me handing out small computer tool kits that the women who stopped by to talk with me were thrilled to get. Just saying.

Holy crap

If this isn't enough to fill you with joy and wonder, I don't know what is: