I'm spitting out the bitter pill

Things that have gone really well recently:

1) Colcannon. I won't deny that Matt's custom of putting bacon in everything may have substantially contributed to the dish, but even so, it was far better than one might have expected, given that the Irish basically just decided to give some extra flavor to their mashed potatoes by adding some mashed cabbage (or vice versa).

2) The comic book group. Partly it was just a lot of fun to sit around and chat about these things, but also I heard about a lot of new material that I'm pretty excited to read.

3) Ben and Jerry's. Now, I had seen their "Cinnamon Bun" ice cream some time ago, and sensibly said "ew!" and instead tried their Willie-Nelson-branded peach cobbler flavor, which was outstanding. So too was their Brownie Cheesecake flavor, or whatever it was. My resolve steeled, I finally gave the cinnamon bun flavor a shot, and goddamn would you believe it's good too? Think "cookie dough," but with a cinnamon motif rather than a chocolate one. Ben and Jerry, you will forever be the kings of adding baked goods to ice cream.

Ok, so, speaking of novel gustatory experiences, Synsepalum dulcificum is a plant whose berries contain a protein that binds to one's taste buds and makes bitter and sour foods taste sweet instead. I am so completely trying this; who wants in? I'm serious.

Also some links, for you link fans in the audience: Legal issues surrounding marriage and gender reassignment, and self-portraits by artists who reproduce paintings.
(Both of these are from Jess, who reads boingboing so I don't have to)

Roll up

Aaand I'm back down to one post a month. Sorry about that. Let's see, what's been going on in my life? I'll be presenting a paper at another Philosophy and Psychiatry conference; this year's meeting is about freedom. I'm sort of surprised that they accepted it; as the reviewer noted, my abstract didn't really do a good job of conveying the extent to which I am going to be talking about psychiatry. Frankly, this is because I really didn't have nearly as clear an idea of what I was doing when I first wrote it. (The idea has to do with this variety of compatibilism I've been mulling over for some time, but there are definitely a couple of ways that psychiatry is uniquely relevant to the central ideas, so I plan to explore those in various ways)
Went to Kristen's confirmation yesterday; that was pretty interesting. It turns out that Lutheran ceremonies are far more like Catholic ones than I would have expected.
Oh, and I've finally started the third Phoenix Wright game, which reminds me of something: I've recently discovered that I am pretty into the whole mystery genre. I guess it's the sort of thing I always just kinda took for granted; growing up there was frequently Perry Mason or Columbo or Mystery! playing on the TV, and I guess I never gave much thought to the fact that one could actually be "into" or "not into" mysteries, instead of being kind of indifferent to them, as to an ambient hum. But yeah. It turns out that they're pretty good. I've also been getting a little bit into horror, which is even more unexpected, but it's all classic stuff like Jekyll and Hyde and Lovecraft and such. So that's what I've been reading lately (er, aside from Iron Man)