All the news that fits into five things

[shewhomust]

• I hadn't come across Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Borders, until Dick Gaughan told us about him - "He's English!" He is attempting to strengthen the bonds that unite the United Kingdom, and discourage the Scots from voting for independence, by organising a mass show of unity in which thousands of people link arms in a human chain a human chain from coast to coast. The only problem is that this chain will run along Hadrian's Wall. Given the location of his constituency, I'm pretty sure he knows this isn't the border, and he's careful in interviews not to say that it is. And I can see that it wouldn't be easy to organise a chain along the border itself, which runs through some remote country, and some sizeable rivers. But treating the Wall as the dividing line is just asking for mockery.



• Talking of the Wall, the Hadrian's Wall Trust is to close for lack of funds. I'm still trying to process this information.



• Library porn! "It's bigger than the Lit & Phil," says durham_rambler.



• As we parked by the river to go swimming this morning - hooray! the students are on vacation and there is room in the pool on Tuesdays! - two herons flew low along the river and under Pennyferry Bridge. One flew on, the other doubled back and stood for a few minutes right opposite us, before flying back the way it had come.



• The recipe supplement in Saturday's Guardian offers its ten best chickpea recipes. Some of them are just variations on familiar recipes, but some look worth trying, if only to satisfy my curiosity: chickpea, parsnip and saffron soup, for example, or the chocolate cake... The only snag is that most of the recipes use tinned chickpeas, and I use dried (I love my pressure cooker). Does anyone have a rule of thumb for converting quantities, or do I have to proceed by trial and error?

Comments

[sovay]

But treating the Wall as the dividing line is just asking for mockery.

At the very least a cameo from Kipling's Puck.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

So many things would be improved by a cameo from Kipling's Puck.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

No quantity conversion metric here, I'm afraid, but tinned chickpeas always ought to be boiled for a minute with about a half-teaspoon of soda to get rid of the tinny taste and most of the sodium. Then run under cold water until they cool down, and then proceed as per usual. It really is worth it.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Worth knowing - it's the tinny taste that really puts me off the tinned variety. Plus, when it's so easy to use dried, why bother?

[anef.livejournal.com]

Stewart's an interesting person, and has written a fascinating book about walking across Afghanistan ("The Places In Between"). I would recommend it wholeheartedly except that the dog dies at the end. I really must get round to reading his second book, "The Prince of the Marshes" which is about his experiences when he was trying to run Iraq.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I would recommend it wholeheartedly except that the dog dies at the end.

I'm pretty hard-hearted about this sort of thing (in books, at least) so I'll take that as a recommendation, and look out for it.

I found a couple of videos of Stewart promoting his Hands Across the Border idea - he didn't come across as impressive (quite endearing, but not impressive).

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Ah, more library porn, it´s my synergy Thing right now! Just when I´m trying to find an old entry on fascinating libraries from 2008 for another LJ-friend only to find the website I used to love so much "Curious Expeditions" for sale ergo gone. I reposted the list of contributions back when, now there are books one can buy called "Sshh!" and the lists are much shorter...

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yay synergy!

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

The forum on Jamie Oliver's website eventually suggests, with spurious accuracy, that to replace one 425 g. tin of chickpeas use 99 g. of dried chickpeas (1/2 cup).

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

This would actually be really helpful info; a shame that it would seem to be inaccurate. Now I'm tempted to make my own measurements.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Is it actually inaccurate? I think durham_rambler was just being snide about that 99g of chickpeas (which differs from the round hundred grammes by less than the weight of a whole chickpea).

But if you do experiment, please let me know the result!

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

I was indeed being snide. I bridle when a nice round number (e.g. 1 mile) is converted into (1.609km). Conversions should, in my book, respect the implied accuracy of the original.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I miss the Lit and Phil, and I only got to go there a handful of times. They were lovely times, though.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

We don't visit the Lit & Phil as often as we once did, either...

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

The Wall is closing? I remember visiting one of the dig-sites of an old fort and it had tours and a gift shop and all. I wonder if that's what being closed?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, they can't close the Wall itself!

But different bits of it are run by different organisations - more than one local council, and English Heritage - so they set up a single body to promote the whole length of the Wall and co-ordinate things, and that's what's closing down...