Comic for Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

Posted: 7:18 am, Wednesday, May 23rd

When I updated the Cast page the other day, I came very close to saying something like, "Pete has just broken up with Cece," but I remembered in time that, no, he hadn't. This strip comes courtesy of Pat, who may not like *how* Pete and Cece broke up, but is probably happy that it happened, nonetheless. I never really got around to writing as much Cece dialogue as I wanted to, kind of like how I just never got Bill in the strip as much as I should have. Oh well.

Oh, so tonight was the first edition of Bullfrog's Quest Through Back Issues of Gourmet, and it was a success. I'm going to give you the recipe now, and I'm going to tack on the disclaimer that it is really simple to make and probably the easiest thing I've ever seen in the pages of Gourmet. Which is why I started with it. Never play an ace if a two will do. (HT: Bone, which I re-read for no clear reason the other day.) Alright, here goes:

Orzo with ham and goat cheese
The recipe is for 6, I halved it and the two of us ate to our content.
1 lb orzo
1/2 lb sliced ham, coarsely chopped (I just got Healthy Choice cold cuts, because there was a long line at the deli)
1/2 lb mild soft goat cheese, crumbled (I kind of thought a zingier cheese might be good)
5 scallions, thinly sliced

1. Make the orzo. This takes about ten minutes. About eight minutes in, turn on your broiler and warm up a greased, shallow baking dish. (Because I halved the recipe, I used a shallow Pyrex pie pan.) Salt the water ahead of time, save 3/4 cup of the pasta water before you drain the orzo in a colander. Toss hot orzo with all the other ingredients in a big bowl (I used the pot that I made the orzo in to begin with), until the cheese is melted. Salt and pepper to taste (I forgot to do this - that may've helped).
2. Transfer orzo mixture to the baking dish, broil 2 inches away from the heat until lightly browned, about 4 minutes.
3. Eat.

Seriously, that is by far the easiest thing I've ever seen in an issue of Gourmet. But it was really tasty, and totally idiot-proof. The whole adventure takes you about twenty-five minutes. Next week, I'll up the difficulty level.

Big Lost finale tonight! I found this kind of cool how-they're-related index on their site the other day. Speaking of Lost, remember the giant four-toed statue foot from last season's finale? Yeah, I don't think the writers do, either.

OK, baseball time. Sorry, non-baseball fans. But the Sox just put the Goat Fuckers back into a double-digit deficit, and I've currently got the incredible fucking choice of listening to either Vin Scully or Bob Uecker in a nightcap while I write this. Honestly, I can't think of two announcers I'd rather listen to. I may alternate between audio feeds every half inning. In fact, yes, that's what I'm going to do. The Dodgers are up, I'm listening to Mr. Scully.

Tom Verducci is probably my favorite current professional baseball writer. Part of this is doubtlessly because I read very few newspaper articles, and have completely cut ESPN.com out of my browsing. About 70% of my sports reading is bloggers these days (25% is reading the Daily News about how much the Goat Fuckers suck, and 5% is CNNSI or something). But, Verducci, I love how he gets to be an ump or a minor leaguer or, the other day, play in the Hall of Fame game out in Cooperstown. That is awesome, and I am deeply envious. Although any effort of mine on a field with major league ballplayers would doubtlessly go like this. (For a rightfully deconstructed article penned by a shitastic sportswriter, check out Fire Joe Morgan destroying some asshole who stepped to Wake. Oh, yeahhh!)

By the way, worst sign I've ever seen at a sporting event. Which reminds me, sometime when I'm home, I need to take photos of the sheets I used to airbrush for Irish home games. RAW asked me about that back like two and a half years ago when I first started this. I'll get to it eventually.

Thanks to Disney's inexhaustable adversiting campaign, I actually said to 2.0 on Sunday evening, "Shit, that one scene where Davy Jones and Johnny Depp are sword fighting while the camera pans wildly around them looks pretty cool." Thankfully, the Voice is here to tell me how much (spoilers!) the movie sucks, and I can save my eleven bucks 'til Knocked Up comes out next weekend.

My coworker and very excellent (and very pregnant) friend the Greek Chick surprised all of us yesterday by saying that tomorrow would be her last day in the office. Granted, it was supposed to be Friday, so it's not like we were caught off-guard, but, she's kind of a big deal at the office, so we had to scramble to get everything ready for her departure. So I missed this awesome Pajiba afternoon diversion. Also, I now have a baby t-shirt sitting in my house, because I hadn't gotten around to getting her a card yet. That'll come in real handy. Anyway:

1. Your prom theme?
"Faithfully," Journey. I have no fucking idea. It gets better, though - oh, wait, actually, the prom *theme* was "Hold onto the Night." The prom *song* was Faithfully. This was in 1995. I have no fucking idea. Somehow "Faithfully" won the student vote, but the girl whose mom was the prom coordinator wanted it to be "Hold onto the Night," so we basically had two songs. I wrote in the Pumpkins' "Luna," which probably surprises no one.
2. Your first album?
"I'm the Rapper, He's the DJ," DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Or vice-versa, whatever. My second album came like nine years later with Live's "Throwing Copper" because my parents kind of totally despised rock n' roll and I was rather meek early on.
3. Your first single?
Wow, actually, a friend got me the Tokens' "We-Mo-Wah" - "in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight" - which I guess was actually my first single. The first one I bought myself I think was the Pumpkins' "Zero" single, but I've never been much of a singles guy.
4. The first time you got drunk/stoned?
God, I have no idea. I think it was an Aerosmith song, but that is probably entirely because the first time I drank, my cousins fed me sloe gin fizzes. I am fucking hardcore. Do not step.
5. Your first relationship?
Probably something lame like "Come On, Eileen" that they played at an SYR at Notre Dame. Again, kind of meek, fucking hardcore.
6. Your first break-up?
I have no idea. Uh... I can't think of what may've been on the stereo at that point. I know I consoled myself by listening to Rage Against the Machine's first album.
7. The first song lyrics you consciously memorized (and do you still remember them)?
As I've discussed before, the WXXA re-write of "We Didn't Start the Fire," in order to win a Star Trek: The Next Generation t-shirt. I can't stress this enough: Fucking hardcore. I believe I remember half of them.
8. Song most closely identified with roller/ice skating?
"YMCA."
9. The first song that blew your mind?
I think actually it was "November Rain." I wasn't really allowed to listen to rock yet, so I had to hear it on - this is so lame - church group van rides. But I knew it rocked.
10. And finally: The song that forever changed your perception of music?
The easy answer here is "Rocket" by the Smashing Pumpkins. But after I was already all about music, in '02, when I heard Sleater-Kinney's "Symphony," that fucking blew me away.

Drop the wisdom and/or embarrassment in the comments, crowd.

bullfrog

e -- Wednesday, May 23 2007, 08:57 am

I want to formally welcome myself to modern coffee brewing. I was forced to get a new coffee pot this weekend and splurged on one with a timer (among other things). WOW! I love waking up to coffee already brewing. Where have I been the last 15 years???

Bullfrog - this must be what your parents felt like when they got a microwave in 1999.

Kind of reminds me of the very last scene of the Office finale....

"We're done." - Ryan to Kelly

E, My parents felt this way when they upgrade their computer from Windows 3.1 to Windows XP. I'm not kidding. Took me five hours to complete all of the upgrading.

I agree with YMCA being the roller skating song. Ice skating seems to best fit with Christmas songs, especially Silver Bells.

Honestly, Pete is an idiot.

An idiot like a fox!

Wait, that made no sense.

The only other song I clearly remember from rollerskating is Locomotion. Oh, and Walk Like an Egyptian. But always, always, always the YMCA.

And my parents got a microwave in '97, E, while we were in Italy. That was also when they got a touch-tone phone.

My prom didn't have a music theme...it was just "Dancing Under the Stars." Very lame. And technically my first album was Disco Diney or Disco Mickey Mouse...something like that. And it all goes downhill from there.

My grandmother literally thought her microwave to be some kind of evil magic when she got hers.

"But I dont understand how the food is very hot, but the paper towel is'nt even warm! How can it target what should be cooked? I dont like this thing!"

I had Disco Mickey for my Fisher Price record player. Good times! I think that was followed by Thriller.

Bullfrog - mea culpa. Maybe it just took two years for it to sink in that your parents just got one.

Substitute pancetta for Ham and Feta (or Gorgonzola if you like it, it's usually a little heavy for my tastes)for the Goat cheese. Dice the pancetta and fry in the pot you'll cook the orzo in, drain, but don't scrape the bottom (you won't have to salt the water)

After combining the ingredients as above, add 1/2 tsp of dry mustard (or a good Dijon) and 1/4 tsp of smoked paprika (or regular is fine if you don't have a wife/husband/significant other who made you purchase smoked paprika because Rachael Ray uses it...) to the mixture and broil as directed.

Serve with a salad of baby spinach, slivered almonds, sliced strawberries and mandarin oranges. Make a dressing by combining some of the juice from the mandarin oranges with olive oil and cider vinegar and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper.

Uh..I mean... yeah, Pete... go for Lissa, Lissa's HOTT!!

I was thinking pancetta, and I'll probably try it with feta next time. I thought of gorgonzola, too, but last time I used it in a pasta, it melted unevenly and overpowered everything.

ENGeek, I actually still freak out like that with tin foil in the oven. I know and understand the science behind it - to a limited extent, anyway - but it still baffles me that it's been sitting in an over and isn't hot.

E, your beating is scheduled for late July.

Sadly, if there's one thing I know it's food... I say sadly because I had to blame the dry cleaner for shrinking one of my work shirts this morning. I got the "we're going back on South Beach" look from my wife... good-bye pasta.

we built this city on rock and roll...all time fave roller skating song.

Woo hoo! Kicked that shit to the cizzurb.

How come nobody has mentioned "Limbo" as the skating song? Is it because it got too much play on this site the other day? Another good one would have to be anything by New Kids on the Block, being that my skating-party prime was at about age 9-10 and that coincided with their heyday.

I think somebody - Miyaa? - mentioned Limbo in reference to skating yesterday, actually, yeah.

Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" is the song I think of when I think of junior high dances.

middle school- "walk the dinosaur". Worse yet, I heard it last weekend at a bar.

Being a representative of the "high school friend" category here, I feel obligated to say that I agree- "Faithfully" made no sense for prom! I was in homeroom with the girl (L.S.) who suggested it- I think it was her & her boyfriend's song. Prom sucked.

my prom themes were "we've got tonight" and "in the still of the night," - the latter, sadly, the boyz II men version. i just assume that all proms suck a little bit, right? i mean, we're all the same dorks underneath our sequins, and really, most high-school guys look just silly in tuxes. but man, did i think we were the COOLEST that night. i was, obviously, not what we would call sober.

the two early break-up songs that i remember are "right here waiting" by richard marx (oh billy, why did it have to end?!) and, oddly enough, "turn the page" by bob seger, i think. why that would be a break-up song is absolutely beyond me. and then the year after that, "when i come around" by green day would make me cry every time. again, no clue.

does anyone remember the crystal chandelier song? the one that they would play at the end of every skating party?

I was hoping it was the Metallica cover of Turn the Page, Drolett. Man, I should put that on the wedding playlist.

Licia, did the L.S. have red hair? I thought Faithfully came from another source.

yep...but it could've come from multiple sources. i just remember her suggesting it in homeroom when the voting list was being compiled.

you know that i wasn't cool until much later. the seger song was part of a relationship that lasted 6 weeks (my longest EVER at that time), where we only saw each other on sunday nights at the nicktown dances, and we only danced to that song. a profound love, obviously. and nicktown has no stoplights, and only a few stop signs - a pretty backward little hick town - so no, they were much more seger than metallica.

I remember a counter-proposal of Pantera's "Fucking Hostile" from another source.

There Ah go-o-o-o-o-o, turn the pay-eeeeeeeeeeg, there Ah go, the-hair Ah go-hoooooooooo.

are you trying to make me cry? that love was deep, man. we spent a full 4 minutes dancing, once a week, for over a month.

i can't remember any of the themes of the proms that i attended but i think it is notable that for the third one my date wore a top hat and tails.

in powder blue.

it was in the vfw.

"I'm SKT, I'm a big effing deal, I've been to three proms."

Ptttttttttt.

is this the same guy who sported a mullet well into college?

Prom: I think mine was "an enchanted evening" so they could use the same decorations every year. The only song I remember is the remake of "Killing Me Softly" and the post-party was held at the house of Vinny Testaverde's agent, who apparently got to keep his Heisman trophy.

Suggestion for a (pink) T-shirt that Lissa might have that I saw today: "Happiness is a stiff one." with a filled martini glass in put in between where the stiff and one words are.

Pete would probably respond with the "Bacon is a vegetable" shirt.

My high school prom was held at a Catholic Church's multipurpose room because one of a semi-hot looking twin girls stole the Prom money (we're talking nearly $2000) made from Football and Basketball concession stands which most every junior had to work at least three times during the school year, or you would not be admit to prom. So, we were dancing in a room where a three-dimensional head portrait of John Paul II was looking back at you, and it damn freaked everyone looking at it, and we could not have it removed or covered over, as part of the Church's contract deal with us. It was the worst prom ever.

Lucky me, I was the Yearbook photographer assigned to prom all four years when I was in high school, because no one wanted to be the goofy prom photographer. So, I didn't have to go work, and for good reason.

it was four.

ahem

Our prom was at the Holiday Inn on Wolfe Road in Colonie. I would've rather the JP2 head.

My prom song was Journey's "Open Arm" (I think...it was Journey something anyway). It was perhaps the most anticlimatic event of my entire life. Oh, except that we were able to smoke and our teachers couldn't do a damned thing about it.

Hey, I was a badass. Seven circles of hell BABY!