Thursday, February 26, 2009

Baked Red snapper

So last Sunday's dinner was Red Snapper. The boy had requested a fish, so this is my first attempt at preparing a whole fish. We selected a fresh looking, bright red fish ('Vivaneau' en Québec) and had him cleaned by the fishmonger at the local grocery.


I stuffed the red snapper with some onions and cilantro, drizzled both sides of the fish with olive oil, then wrapped it in aluminum foil. The package then rested in a baking pan in a 425 F oven for 35 minutes.

I served it with a corn and red pepper compote seasoned with tumeric, and some steamed greens.

The end result wasn't as pretty as I'd hoped, but tasted fine.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Poor schools spur parents to flee the island

"Two statistics tell the story. A first-year teacher makes $38,411. A first-year Montreal bus driver makes $44,336."- Henry Aubin

I'm dead tired about people praising education, then failing to either pay for or commit themselves to it. 

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Happy Birthday, Lincoln and Darwin

Coincidently, the Great Emancipator and arguably the most significant scientist of the Nineteenth century share a birthday, February 12, 1809. Compared to many other thinkers of that age, a combination of pragmatism and commitment to their ideas made them figures whose influence has grown. 


Darwin's careful observations have strengthened the explicatory power of his theory, unlike those  of Freud and Marx. In most respects, he has provided a theoretical basis for biology that is equivalent to that of Newton and Einstein for physics. 

Lincoln's admirers include Barack Obama, Fidel Castro, and indeed, Carl Marx. But Lincoln was a stern idealist. His support of Sherman's brutal campaigns through Mississipi, Georgia and his "March to the sea" involved total war- a campaign that destroyed the civilian economy that supported the Confederate war effort as well as attacking Confederate military supplies and lines of communication. Lincoln was not a pollyanna. 

Neither Darwin nor Lincoln were angels, but men who saw actions and the resulting consequences without flinching. 

 
"If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country."
-E.M. Forster