Alphabet meme

[resonant]

I know, I know, so two weeks ago, but I asked kassrachel for a letter and she gave me S. So here are ten things I love that start with S.

(If you want to do it too, ask me in the comments and I will give you a letter.)

1. Shapenote (Sacred Harp) singing.
   
   I think I was in junior high when I figured out that certain songs in the hymnal had a family similarity, and that I could find more by turning to the index of sources and looking up The Sacred Harp and The Southern Harmony. When I lived in the mountains, I used to see flyers for shapenote sings -- "All Day Singing And Dinner On The Ground" -- but I didn't stay long enough to go to one.
   
   Here, have some.
   
   Chanticleer, Jefferson (Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken) from Our American Journey
   Anonymous 4, Wondrous Love from American Angels
   Norumbega Harmony, Sacred Throne from Sing And Joyful Be
   
   
2. Smut
   
   Because it makes proud characters vulnerable and polite ones grabby and selfish and desperate. Because eyes and mouths can be naked, too. Because there's a soft melty center inside the hardest of shells. Because connection can conquer loneliness and love can be stronger than fear. Because of the knowledge of love in the body.
   
   
3. Strawberries.
   
   The country people say, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry than a strawberry, but doubtless He never did." The new supermarket breed is surprisingly good -- they don't feel or smell like the real thing, but they taste like it. But I still love the old-fashioned ones, so soft that if you pick your own you crush half of them and have to eat them right there in the row. I have surprisingly few strawberry recipes (except a very good Italian ice) because there's nothing a cook can do to improve a strawberry. My high school friend Red spent a summer in a cabin with a field of them just outside; she invited a bunch of us for dinner once and then for dessert she turned us out to graze.
   
   
4. Soup.
   
   Alchemy. Tough cuts of meat, plus vegetables too floppy to eat on their own, plus onions and garlic, and somehow the result is a meal so wholesome you can feel your immune system perking up. Even in hot weather I'll make corn soup (pure essence of summer) and Mexican lime soup (nothing much to the soup; the fun's in passing around bowls of tomato and avocado and cilantro and toasted tortillas to garnish it with). But now we're about to enter prime soup season. Minestrone with Italian sausage; chicken soup that's not much more than a frame for truly excellent homemade broth; cream of carrot with toasted pecans floating on it; cauliflower and cheese; beef-barley soup that can cure any cold; Cook's Illustrated's insanely complicated yet heavenly black bean. I can't wait.
   
   
5. Snakes.
   
   I don't think they enjoy being pets, or else I'd have one. I love their smooth shiny skin and their alien, graceful way of moving. I love the way they can swallow things bigger than they are. At the aquarium in San Francisco I saw whip-snakes, pale green, three feet long and thinner than pencils, all hanging from a branch over a stream in identical down-and-up curves that looked like something out of Arabic calligraphy. (Also, I love that in that previous sentence I originally typed "whip-snapes.")
   
   
6. Speculative fiction.
   
   Other worlds. The sociological-laboratory pleasure: If you change this one thing in human life, what happens? The pleasures of suddenly discovering you're taking the wrong things for granted: You mean these aren't all English-speaking white people? The pleasure of seeing the mythic enacted by (somewhat) ordinary people. The maps at the front of the book, the glossaries at the back. Consequences, thought through in meticulous detail: Where does the protein come from? Where does the garbage go? Who quarried the stone to build that castle?
   
   
7. Semicolons.
   
   It's one of the joys of writing Rodney McKay that you can plausibly put semicolons not only in his POV narrative but even in his dialog. ("Greetings, salutations; what's she done?") I love the delicate connection of two ideas, each of which needs a grammatically complete clause to express it, and yet which shouldn't be hastily severed with a period.
   
   
8. Sweaters.
   
   Already I've brought out a favorite light sweater: cotton fleece the color of the haze on a purple grape. Still to come: a tunic-length lambswool two shades darker than denim, a pale-green cashmere cardigan.
   
   
9. Seasons.
   
   I love the day in February when it's finally still light at five o'clock, and the night in August when the temperature falls below 70. The farmer's market procession: lettuce, spinach, and green onions giving way to strawberries, blackberries, the first little zucchini, early tomatoes, tomatoes up to your ears with eggplant on top, cherries and then peaches and then the first apples. The day I can take out the garbage without a coat, and the day the sweaters come out of storage. The return of the Christmas CDs, and the day I pack them away.
   
   
10. Slash.
    
    You knew I had a list, didn't you? Of course I have a list.
    
    
    
    
    1. Because men are sexy. Their bodies, of course. Their sexual response, so different from a woman's, with everything visible from the outside.
       
       
    2. Because men's tenderness is sexy. Of course men can be tender toward women, too, but men's tenderness toward women is so written over with both sexism and capitalism that it carries baggage with it.
       
       
    3. Because novelty is sexy. I've been married since 1989; the man-woman thing, while very nice, is pretty familiar to me by now. It's nice to read about body parts I don't have.
       
       
    4. Because sexual discovery is sexy. If your characters are grown-ups, slashing them is one of your few chances to make them feel a physical sensation they've literally never felt before.
       
       
    5. Because it's sexy when someone risks something for love.
       
       
    6. Because it's sexy that we're saying a big "Fuck you!" to the commodification of desire.
       
       
    7. Because it's sexy that we do this for each other.
       
    
    

Comments

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

I love the delicate connection of two ideas, each of which needs a grammatically complete clause to express it, and yet which shouldn't be hastily severed with a period.
I shivered when I read that. Such a perfect description!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Very well written.

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

Shape-note singing! I (used to) do that - I keep missing the meetups recently. It is massively fun. The first one I learned was the full arrangement of Wayfaring Stranger, which is the perfect eerie shape note song for October in the mountains...

and I agree with everything else on this list. Especially the slash; thank you for putting it so beautifully.

[tevere.livejournal.com]

Because men's tenderness is sexy. Of course men can be tender toward women, too, but men's tenderness toward women is so written over with both sexism and capitalism that it carries baggage with it.

Ooh, I never took the time to consider why I really dig the tenderness in slash while I don't for het stories. But obviously, this is it.

In fact, I'm nodding away to all the points on your slash love list. More slash! More love! A neverfail recipe for fannish happiness *g*.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I don't read a lot of femslash (and most of what I do read, I don't like much for some reason), but I'm wondering whether slash could similarly rescue a woman's protectiveness. Because conventionally if you see a women being protective in a het relationship, it makes you think of mothers, which is creepy.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is so lovely to read. I'd almost ask for a letter, but I know I will suck at answering, so I'm not sure it's worth it.

meanwhile, your delicious semi-colons and list and whip-snapes (I typed ship-snapes! get these 21#$@# snapes of this !@$@# ship!) and me are wondering: what is the recipe for Cook's Illustrated's insanely complicated yet heavenly black bean??? *wants*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Snapes on a Ship!

Cook's Black Bean Soup is delicious. Here's the recipe.

1 pound black beans, rinsed and picked over for stones
4 ounces ham steak, trimmed of fat
2 bay leaves
5 cups water
1 teaspoon salt

Put all these together in a Dutch oven and simmer for an hour and a half. Or cook them overnight in a crockpot. (If you have hard water, add 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda.)

Remove the ham steak (it will turn black), dice it, and set it aside. Discard the bay leaves.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
3 celery ribs, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a Dutch oven, sautee these 12 to 15 minutes over medium-high.

6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes (more if you like a hotter soup)
1 1/2 tablespoons cumin

Add to the vegetables, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6 cups chicken broth

Stir into vegetables. Add beans and their liquid. Simmer about 30 minutes, until flavors combine. Remove about 5 cups of beans and liquid; puree them in a blender or food processor; return them to the Dutch oven.

2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water

Stir these together; add to the soup; bring to a boil to thicken.

2 tablespoons lime juice

Stir in.

Now the soup is done (whew!) and all you have to do is set out the garnishes, which really make a difference in how good it is:

lime wedges
chopped cilantro
diced red onion
diced avocado
sour cream or yogurt

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Oh god, that sounds so insanely good. I'm keeping this to try it out this winter some time! BLACK BEANS mmmm.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

oops, forgot to say, you stir the diced ham back in when you add the lime juice at the end.

[fer-de-lance.livejournal.com]

So help me, before the winter is over I will make this. I adore black bean soup.

(Dried beans, or tinned?)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Dried -- you don't even have to soak them. It sounds improbable, but I've done it and it works.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

What a terrific list. I think I've just been hypnotized into making soup today. :)

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is so lovely. I love reading these. I am right there with you, most especially on smut and seasons. (I get a frisson of joy when I pack the sweaters away at the start of the summer, and another one when I bring them back out of the attic at the start of fall. Somehow I am not surprised that these things are also significant to you. :-)

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I have been doing Shape Note singing for over 10 years. It is truly a transcendent experience. If you can get to a local singing, give it a try. Some people think that a full out convention is not the place to start. *shrug* I don't know what to tell you.

Check out http://www.fasola.org for schedules.

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

Your post is wonderful. I took both the songs and the perfectly expressed wisdom with much gratitude. Thank you.

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

and then for dessert she turned us out to graze.

What a great description!

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Yay! Someone else who loves snakes ::beams::

Your slash list is so perfect... oh, and soup, and seasons and sweaters... ::happy sigh::

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

I really love your writing. This was one of those LJ posts that makes everything around you quieter while you're reading it and then more colourful when you stop to look around again.

[chickwriter.livejournal.com]

Wow, snakes, snapes, smut, strawberries and SLASH!

Your writing is lyrical and evocative, even if "just" lists o'stuff. :)

Because it's sexy when someone risks something for love.

YES!

[qe2.livejournal.com]

I really rather want to live in your language.

Just sayin'.

[china_shop]

Because of the knowledge of love in the body.

These words are singing in my head like the best kind of windchimes. ♥

[kezzamorphosis.livejournal.com]

I'll take a letter, if you please!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, this is two months old now! If you still want a letter, you can give me T, but it's understandable if you've moved on to new things by now ... sorry!