I called a younger friend last night to express my condolences on the loss of his mother, she ill for a while.
Memorial today, Tuesday.
We spoke for a while and he related that on Friday, his wife expects to deliver a lovely baby girl whose name he will divulge today during his mother’s eulogy.

How many times does it happen that the same family experience two polar -opposite milestones on the same day?
A lot.

Most of us have had that happen to someone in our family.
Is there a lesson here?
If there is, I don’t see it.

Some will say, “The Lord maketh; the Lord taketh away.”
or “God opens one door and closes another.”
or “It happens according to God’s plan.”

But we highlight so many milestones they are always piling up in unexpected ways..

Wednesday Lauren and I are having lunch and watching the end of Victoria, season 2.
Friday Kat returns from school.
Saturday Kat and I will have dinner together at a Japanese restaurant.
Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day.
etc.
And in the further distance, Valentine’s Day is a milestone as is May Day, and of course, my 4-day trip to Florence in late May.

So many.
Conflicting milestones, opposite-tenored milestones, nothing more than conversation fodder.

Otherwise, is there a lesson here?
Yes.
Coincidences feed the Twilight Zone, we the enablers.

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Tagging Today
Thursday, December 20, 2018
My 252nd consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
252. The 5.04% mark of my commitment.
A different way of looking at the passage of time.
5,000 so far away.
Tick Tock.
Time is 12.01am.
Boston’s temperature will reach a high of  49* with a real feel of 41. Cloudy.

Dinner is Roasted Rib Eye for Two and a Grandpa’s Baked Potato.

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Question of the Day:
How do we make curry?

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Love your notes.
Contact me @ domcapossela@hotmail.com 

Howard’s take on Chris Capossela’s “memo” of a few days ago:

Not that I think Chris is accountable to me, but his narrative was engaging. And set me to thinking about it.

Some questions remain for me in Chris’s account of the expedition. I’d like to hear what he defines as his “comfort zone” out of which he stepped to fly with his team to Montgomery. I’d like to know if he is clear on the difference between “bearing witness,” which is how he describes the experience he and his team had visiting those two landmark museums in Montgomery, and simply witnessing and observing, which are closer descriptors to my mind to the experiences he relates. It’s the people who survived the horrible ordeals commemorated and depicted in Stevenson’s accounts and in the exhibits of the museums who are capable of “bearing witness” I think. The rest of us can only listen and learn in mute shame and humility.

But those queries will have to wait for the right opportunity, should it ever arise, for me to ask him directly.

Having known Chris from Day One (and still having very fresh memories of the day he was awarded the Ames Prize by his classmates at Harvard), I have no doubt of his empathy and depth of feeling and willingness to be there for his fellow humans, and I take on faith his acceptance of the enormous tacit burden he assumes in pledging to champion a more inclusionary ethos for Microsoft, a company with a very erratic history in its adherence to principled conduct of business. He has his work cut out for him. Especially now with all the technology giants, previously so inviolable and powerful, under attack from all sides, and with far greater scrutiny from the powers that be from both sides of the aisle.

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Short Takes
A quick update on my health issues, two slight negatives.
One is that I‘ve upped my Melatonin a single milligram, from five to six.
Sleep has been a little erratic lately.
After a year of excellent sleep I can’t go back to random.
A month ago, a year after i started Melatonin at 5 mg per night, I needed an increase and jumped from three to five milligrams, but it’s proven to be not quite enough.
Six is definitely working.

A second health issue development is that my morning coffee intake is still sliding, passing ten ounces on its way towards nine.
Paying a lot of attention to my body’s signals.
When I’m not really anticipating another sip of coffee I stop.
My body’s lack of interest I accept as my limit.
If I’m not loving the coffee, or the drink, or the food, why am I continuing to eat or drink?

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Short Takes
In researching curry, I came across the ‘Curry-Howard correspondence.’
It has nothing to do with cooking curry.
Nor does it have anything to do with our Howard.
Curry and Howard are both surnames.
But I found the piece fascinating.
So out of the realm of my understanding.
Perhaps others of us will find it terrific.
Copied verbatim out of Wikipedia:

In programming language theory and proof theory, the Curry–Howard correspondence (also known as the Curry–Howard isomorphism or equivalence, or the proofs-as-programs and propositions- or formulae-as-types interpretation) is the direct relationship between computer programs and mathematical proofs.

It is a generalization of a syntactic analogy between systems of formal logic and computational calculi that was first discovered by the American mathematician Haskell Curry and logician William Alvin Howard.
It is the link between logic and computation that is usually attributed to Curry and Howard, although the idea is related to the operational interpretation of intuitionistic logic given in various formulations by L. E. J. Brouwer, Arend Heyting and Andrey Kolmogorov (see Brouwer–Heyting–Kolmogorov interpretation) and Stephen Kleene (see Realizability). The relationship has been extended to include category theory as the three-way Curry–Howard–Lambek correspondence.

Web Meister responds: “That clears everything up.”
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Answer to Question: 
How do we make curry?

I love curry.
I love it but I don’t make it.
I don’t know how.
Up to now I’ve been buying commercially-prepared sauces.

But that’s silly.
I understand food.
I know my likes and dislikes.
I can develop a recipe. 
And then I can deal with ingredients that I know and love.
Bear with me while I work it out.

Silken and opulent – what I want the sauce to be.
Coconut milk. A lot of saturated fat but it’s not part of a steady diet.
Won’t concern myself.

To sweeten the coconut, we’ll invite pineapple juice, the real thing: fresh.
Available in some markets.
Delicious.
Will provide the liquidity when it comes to simmering the proteins in the curry sauce.

Of course, curry powder.
I can make my own, and I do, but store-bought is at least as good.
Excellent qualities of curry powder available at the market. 

Not much complements curry.
Except saffron does.
And it adds a desirable color.
Let’s do it.

Salt.
Definitely. 

Pepper?
I think I’d like the curry to have a little kick, so perhaps a pinch of cayenne.
Just a pinch.

So, an ingredients list, so far.
Coconut milk.
Salt.
Curry powder.
Saffron
Cayenne.
Pineapple juice.

Lacks opulence.
Heavy cream.
Nothing says opulence as does that cow juice.
Add to the list.

Let’s keep the dish simple and make it a chicken curry.
We may use chicken breast or thighs, meatless, whichever.
Cut chicken into 2-inch chunks.
End up with firmer texture.
Let’s make the recipe for two people, 1lb meat.

Should we saute the chicken before we simmer it?
I’ll say, No!
I like the tenderness of the chicken unseared, simmered in sauce.

Let’s add a little complexity, mushrooms.
Love mushrooms.
To balance the 16oz of chicken, I think 8oz of mushrooms.
Now, unlike the chicken, mushrooms I brown for most uses.
In a nonstick saute pan with 1t butter and 1t vegetable oil, seasoning with 1/4t salt and 1/2t of fines herbes, and a touch, a 1/2t of flour
When the mushrooms are nearly done, we’ll add 2oz of chopped shallots.
The bit of flour will help with the opulence of the sauce without an off-putting floury taste.

The curry and saffron are spice enough but we have no herbs.
Fresh basil and parsley always work.
Chopped together and tossed into the curry when we add the chicken and cooked mushrooms.

A starch?
Curry?
Rice, of course.
But let’s connect the rice to the meal.
Let’s cook the rice in coconut water and pineapple juice instead of water.
And a touch of salt.
And al dente, not soft.

Now, bear in mind that this recipe was created out of my head and then I estimated the quantities based on how I made it this first time.
The measurements may be a little, but just a little off.
So we’ll use our judgment. 

We’re there, I think.
Let’s get some numbers down. 

CURRY SAFFRON CHICKEN
for 2 people
16oz of fresh boneless chicken breasts or thighs cut into 2” cubes
and 6oz mushrooms, sautéed to light brown with shallots
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley and/or basil
Reserve

Simmer for five minutes or until unified:
6oz coconut milk
3oz fresh pineapple juice [or if not available, substitute coconut water with pineapple added]
3TB curry powder
1/2t saffron
1/2t salt
a pinch of cayenne pepper

Add chicken and mushrooms and simmer for 20 minutes or until chicken pieces are cooked through.

Add 2oz heavy cream and simmer for 5 minutes more.

Serve with pineapple-coconut water infused rice.

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Good morning on this Thursday, December 20, Christmas now only 5 days away, and Kwanzaa, six days.
Less than a week.
Today we talked about coincidences related to milestones and we continued to develop the “Tagging Today” entry, vis a vis ‘tick tock.’
We read Howard’s thoughtful response to Chris Capossela’s Microsoft -out-of-the-box post of a week ago.
And curry. Love that curry.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom