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Last night I got invited along for a night on the town with some of Canada's very best cartoonists. Along with the usual guys we had Jay Stephens, J Bone and Darwyn Cooke out last night. Jay is the two time Emmy winning cartoonist responsible for such classics as Tutenstein and The Land Of Nod. J Bone is the incredible artistic talent behind comics like Super Friends and The Brave And The Bold. And Darwyn is one of Canada's best known and highly regarded comics writers and artists. He's the Eisner Award winning artist behind books like The New Frontier, Catwoman and The Spirit. It was a really fun night rambling around the city with all these guys from the Canadian comics community.They are all in town for thew Toronto Fan Expo which everyone in town should go to...

Over the weekend Whole Food Market attempted to earn a Guinness World Record for “Most Parmigiano Reggiano Wheels Ever Cracked” at the same time. Gillian Riley, author of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food weighs in on this cheesy affair.

An almighty crack.

As the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano surges towards the Guinness Book of Records the thought of all those craggy wheels simultaneously rent asunder reminds us of Michelangelo’s labours at the rock face in Pietrasanta near Lucca in Tus-cany in the summer of 1518. He and his team were selecting marble for the tomb of Pope Julius II, and his titanic struggles with the obdurate raw material were as blistering as the clashes between the artist and his client. Using the strength within the marble to detach the desired lump was a prelude to releasing the form already latent in the block, described in a sonnet by Michelangelo:

Non ha l’ottimo artista alcun concetto
c’un marmo solo in sé non circonscriva
col suo superchio, e solo a quello arriva
la man che ubbidisce all’intelletto.

The greatest artist has no concept
that is not already present in a block of marble
beneath its outward form, and this can only be reached
by the hand that obeys the intellect.

The combination of hands on physical skills and sublime inspiration expounded in this sonnet are the qualities deployed in the making of Parmigiano-Reggiano. The great wheels contain the imagined essence of grass and hay and milk and the odours of pas-tures and fragrant byres, released by the tool of the cheesemonger, exploring fault lines in the mature cheese as the sculptor teases form and meaning from the rock. The large heart-shaped tool, a sharp point at the bottom and a stout handle at the top, will prize off a lump of cheese the desired size as accurately as the stonemason’s tools.

The crystalline graininess found in parmesan is umami, a natural flavour enhancer. The concept of umami was unknown to Michelangelo, although he enjoyed the effects of it when parmesan was used as a condiment or as an ingredient in many cooked dishes. This combination of various ingredients to get an enhanced burst of flavour is similar to his use of colori cangianti in the Sistine Chapel, where a loose application of con-trasting colours one on top of the other produces a shimmering intensity.

Although not rejecting Vasari’s claim that he had a mind above material pleasures, Michelangelo cared enough about his food and drink to jot down some menus on the back of a letter, probably during his time in Pietrasanta. These were Lenten menus so no cheese or eggs, [more maybe in some other blog…] Pasta and some sophisticated vegetable dishes, (braised fennel, spinach, a salad) with umami effect from salt herrings and anchovies, show an enthusiasm for simple but sophisticated eating. He would have enjoyed the full impact of parmesan at the banquets organised by Bartolomeo Scappi, where it was served as it often is today in chunks hewn from a larger lump. We too can enjoy the michelangelesque qualities of Parmigiano-Reggiano, towering as it does above all other cheeses as the artist towered over his contemporaries.

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Jamie at Duward Discussion tagged my great friend Sandee at Comedy Plus with the Fifth Sentence Book meme. Mary The Teach at Answers To The Questions tagged Jamie and titled the Meme the Book Meme whereas my sweet friend Sandee at Comedy Plus referred to it as the 123 Book Meme. So, I thought, I would come up with my own title as well so this meme is called the The Fifth Sentence On Page 123 meme, but it's all the same meme.

Thank you Sandee for always thinking of me! I enjoyed writing this meme because I love books, and the book I'm reading was right by me, so it was as easy as pie- that is, it was as easy as eating pie - not baking one, because it is not easy to bake a pie...

Anyway, all you have to do with this meme is find the book closest to you that has at least 123 pages, and...I don't know why I'm writing this- because here are the rules...


Here are the Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people & post a comment here once you post it to your blog, so I can come see.

The book I found is the one I'm presently reading entitled S Is For Silence, by Sue Grafton. After writing and publishing this post I noticed that Sandee at Comedy Plus and Dawn at Twisted Sister both added a plot summary about their books in their posts. Dawn also pointed out how this Meme is a good way to learn about what other bloggers are reading. Consequently, I learned something from my two great friends Sandee at Comedy Plus and Dawn at Twisted Sister again, who encouraged me to rise to the occasion. Therefore, I will write more about the book by my side, S Is For Silence. S Is For Silence is part of an alphabet mystery series written by Sue Grafton. The protagonist,(Kinsey) is a private investigator and each books title starts with a different letter in the alphabet. For example, the first book is entitled, A Is For Alibi, and the rest of the series titles will continue through the alphabet until she reaches the letter Z -

With each series title the plot moves through whatever case Kinsey is investigating, although what I love most is watching Kinsey's character develop along the way. It's as if Sue Grafton allows the reader to view more about Kinsey's character and personality in each title. You will love this series if you love books that focus on plot, character development, or just love a good mystery- all the ingredients are there.

The next three sentences after the fifth sentence on page 123 are:


"She put out her cigarette. "You have any change?"

"What for?" he asked, but he was already digging in his pants pocket, coming up with a handful of coins.



I tag:

Dawn at Twisted Sister
Misty at My Dogs Keep Me Sane
Robert at Observations from the Back 40
BMG at Soapbox Mom
Speedy at Speedcat Hollydale Page
Mel at Monday Morning Power

(Sorry, I pulled a Sandee and broke the rules a little- I added six) :0