Month: April 2008

Garfield minus Garfield

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What if a comic strip lost its main character? Would it lose its essence? Would it even make sense? Those questions floated on Internet message boards until Dan Walsh of Dublin did us all a favor and answered them with his Web site, Garfield Minus Garfield ( http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com).

The result takes Jim Davis's cartoon and strips it of the famously fat feline. All alone, Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner, looks manic at best and depressed at worst. And Walsh's fans seem to like it that way: The site averaged about 300,000 views a day in late February.

“The one resounding piece of feedback I've received is that people feel Jon's loneliness and desperation is just like theirs, but that his crazy antics makes them laugh at it,” Walsh, 32, writes in an e-mail. “Sometimes the world can feel like a pretty intimidating place, and it takes someone like Jon to remind you to lighten up and laugh at the hopelessness of it all.”

One of Walsh's occasional readers is Davis, who heard about the site a few months ago. The cartoonist calls the work “an inspired thing to do” and wishes to thank Walsh for enabling him to see another side of “Garfield.”



For those interested, the blog is now syndicated on LJ: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/garfieldminus

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[Recipe] Lamb Kefta Tagine (meatballs with eggs)

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Kefta tagine

Original recipe by Simon King and David Myers
from The Hairy Bikers

For the meatballs

500g minced lamb
1 onion, very finely chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp paprika
small handful coriander leaves, finely chopped
small handful flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
1 free-range egg yolk (to bind)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the tagine

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato pur
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes, drained
2 tsp clear honey
200g frozen peas
2-4 free-range eggs
handful parsley, chopped, for garnish

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. For the meatballs, place the meat, onion, spices, fresh herbs and egg yolk into a large bowl. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix well. Knead with your hands to form a smooth paste. Roll into walnut-sized balls and set aside.
3. For the stew, in a tagine or heavy-bottomed lidded casserole heat the olive oil, add the onion and sweat until translucent.
4. Add the meatballs and cook until lightly browned on all sides. Combine the tomato purwith the canned tomatoes and add this to the tagine along with the honey. Cover and simmer for ten minutes.
5. Add the peas to the tagine or casserole and stir. Carefully break the eggs onto the top of the stew. Place the tagine or casserole into the oven and bake until the eggs are cooked to your liking, approximately ten minutes.
6. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with couscous.

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[Recipe] Medfouna

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Medfouna

Adapted from the original recipe by Simon King and David Myers
from The Hairy Bikers

   

For the dough

1 sachet dried yeast
175ml lukewarm water
250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
egg wash, for brushing
poppy seeds, for sprinkling

For the filling
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 large stick celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp thyme, leaves picked and chopped
4 tbsp flatleaf parsley, chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
500g fillet steak, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. For the dough, add the yeast to the warm water and mix to dissolve.
3. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the yeast and water mixture to the flour and mix to form a dough.
4. On a floured work surface, knead the dough for ten minutes.
5. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and place in bowls. Cover the bowls with a tea towel or cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size.
6. Meanwhile, for the filling, place the onion, celery, thyme, parsley, coriander and meat into a bowl. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix well.
7. To make the medfouna, once the dough has risen, roll out both portions into large rounds the size of a dinner plate.
8. Place one of the dough rounds on a baking tray. Place the filling on top and spread evenly, leaving a 2cm edge. Brush the edge with a little water. Place the second dough round on top and press the edges gently together to seal the bread.
9. Brush the top with some egg wash and sprinkle lightly with poppy seeds.
10. Transfer to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown. Serve.

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Work mailing lists

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There's a mailing at work called for-sale, where people put stuff they … wait for it… want to put up for sale. There's also a mailing list called chat, where people just rant and post jokes.

There's one bloke who is a closet anarchist and loves to poke people to provoke a reaction. Generally, people fall for it and it can get quite amusing on the lists. People lose their mind and start yelling at each other on for-sale, until somebody loses patience and tells everybody to move to a different list :)

Here's the breakdown of today's messages:

*points out this is going even stronger in chat already*

> *pointless plea for everyone to take this over to chat*
>
>> *ranting about the person who posted crap just to annoy people*
>>
>>> *irrelevant and off topic retort*
>>>
>>>> *random comment intended to annoy people*
>>>>
>>>>>MEAT IS MURDER
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Some friends of mine have recently helped setup a cooperative venture
>>>>>> between several farmers around the country to sell meat direct to
>>>>>> consumers
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Their website is http://www.handmademeat.co.uk/

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Nooooooooooooo, not the Air Farce :(

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The Royal Canadian Air Farce, one of Canada's longest-running comedy troupes, will be grounded after next season, CBC announced on Tuesday.

The venerable weekly sketch comedy TV show, known for its topical mix of political and social satire, will produce nine regular episodes in the fall before ending with its traditional New Year's Eve gala special. The cast of CBC-TV's Royal Canadian Air Farce will perform the season finale on Friday.

“It's just time,” original cast member and producer Don Ferguson told CBC News on Tuesday afternoon. “We've done pretty much everything we wanted to do. The ratings are still good. I want to be in charge of my own exit.”

Ferguson also said he didn't consider what day had been chosen for the announcement. “I didn't even realize it was April 1 that we were doing this, that it was going to come outIt's not a joke, but it's a great date for us to announce it. April Fool's Day, why not?”

The secret to the show's long run, he added, was keeping the audience the main priority. “We've only ever worried about [each] week's show and how the audience is going to respond to it,” Ferguson said.

“If we can make real, living, breathing Canadians laugh about what's going on in Canada and the world and life in general, it's a great gig.”

Radio beginnings

Originating with a Montreal comedy troupe in 1970, Air Farce debuted on CBC Radio in December 1973, eventually producing more than 600 broadcasts over 24 years. The show was introduced to CBC-TV audiences in 1980, after which came a 10-episode series and several once-a-year TV specials over the next few years.

After the 1992 New Year's Eve special proved popular with viewers, Air Farce became a mainstay of CBC-TV beginning in October 1993. After running on both CBC Radio and CBC-TV, the show moved exclusively to television in 1997. Last year, to celebrate its 300th episode, the producers, cast and crew staged an hour-long, live-to-air show.

They subsequently decided that, beginning this season, all shows would continue with the live format. In addition to original members Ferguson, Roger Abbott and Luba Goy, the current cast features Penelope Corrin, Jessica Holmes, Craig Lauzon and Alan Park.

Air Farce's current season finale airs Friday.

“We remain in discussions with [producers Abbott and Ferguson] about upcoming projects,” said CBC spokesman Jeff Keay.

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