
<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7441385060_182623708f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Fabulous!">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7441385060_6ba977a21f_t.jpg" alt="Fabulous!"/>
</a>

The most important thing to happen this month, besides [my parents coming to visit](/2012/06/20/ï¿¼visiting-spain-in-2012/), was a series of four visits to the dentist. [The first visit](/2012/05/24/child-dental-fillings/) was the worst by far, and once we secured the association between going to the dentist and getting to eat ice cream in the morning before lunch, Nora was actually asking when she could get to go to the dentist again. If you've ever been to a dentist, you'll know that they don't like to let you leave without securing your next visit, so we've got another one planned for July to do a checkup and make sure all her teeth are adjusting to their new composition.  <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7164350787_05b7de7e77_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Modelling New Dress">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7164350787_cf6bbb0bc0_n.jpg" alt="Modelling New Dress"/>
</a>

Nora has become quite adept at directing a discussion towards some goal she has. She often doesn't initiate a conversation with her immediate desire like she used to, but she attacks it at oblique rhetorical angles. For example, one morning she was very concerned that I didn't know where the ice cream was kept at the local candy shop. "Oh, Poppy, I have to show you!" I was up for a bit of a walk, so I agreed, but I knelt down as we were leaving and said, "We're not going to _buy_ any ice cream today, but you can show me where it is and maybe we can buy one on Saturday, okay?" Visibly upset, she agreed. When we got to the store, I pretended to walk by it, and she caught me and pulled me in the direction of the door, ran inside and pointed out the freezer with the ice cream. I acted enlightened by this information, and she said, "We can only have ice cream when I go to the dentist, right?" I smiled and confirmed her astute observation. She followed it up with, "Since we're here, can I go play in the playground \[across the street\] for two minutes?"

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7471406032_d71ef43412_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Cutie Pie">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7471406032_c8e7edbeba_n.jpg" alt="Cutie Pie"/>
</a>

Another tactic that has become one of her favorite phrases this month is to pick up a toy, or really any object, and ask, "What do I need to do with this?" I've tried responding, "You don't _need_ to do anything with it," but then she just repeats the question. What she wants is a combination of instruction and permission to play with whatever it is. It's subtle and manipulative, and it works very well.

One day this month, I was awakened, as I often am now, by Nora coming into my room to say "Good morning". She confirmed what I had vaguely heard, that she had already taken off her diaper and done pee-pee and flushed. The previous morning, when she had come in, and I had been exhausted, I allowed her to climb up into her mother's side of the bed and lie down with me. This day she did the same. I glanced at my <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7471409236_0ecb335f10_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Braid">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7471409236_9f54485808_m.jpg" alt="Braid"/>
</a>

bedside table to my clock, only to remember that it was on loan to my wife after someone (okay, it was me!) dropped her alarm clock and broken the alarm function on it. There was plenty of sun outside the window, so I figured it must be about 8:00 or so (we usually get up between 8:30 and 9:30). I leaned over Nora to see my clock on my wife's side of the bed, only to discover that it said 6:30! My wife gets up between 6:00 and 6:15, so I assumed that she, being unfamiliar with the device, had accidentally, hours ago, flipped it to "time set" mode where the time was not advancing. I lay back down and noticed that Nora was already snoring. That was when I heard my wife downstairs <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7471435062_be47847586_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colorful">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7471435062_767d9c2a72_m.jpg" alt="Colorful"/>
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preparing to leave. It really was 6:30! I nudged Nora and told her that it was still nighttime and that she needed to go back to her bed. She looked at the window, back at me, to the window again, and back at me, before swallowing her objection that "No, Poppy, it's clearly not night time!" and let me lead her back to bed. She slept until 10:15! Bloody solstice.

Her counting is progressing steadily. We've made it to the word "eleventeen" phase, which every anglophone child passes through. She's currently perfecting her "in N minutes" and "for N minutes" phrases, when asking to do something for a short time. But if often comes out as, "Can I do X for three minutes and ten minutes and four minutes?" We're not seeing any recognition of a connection between the arabic numeral and the word for the digit.

We filled out and submitted her official application for school, which she will be starting in September some time. She's pretty excited about that.

The state of the offspring is strong!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7441385060_182623708f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Fabulous!">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-30-state-of-the-offspring-address-june-2012/7441385060_6ba977a21f_z.jpg" alt="Fabulous!"/>
</a>


State of the Offspring Address - June 2012


<img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-29-back-to-the-future-day-hoax-generator/7465810292_66b1b524ac_t.jpg" alt="It's Back To The Future Day" class="post-thumb"/>If you even remotely dabble in or read news about social networking, you may have heard of a recent hoax in which a graphic was passed around by millions of internet users depicting the digital readout from the time machine in the Back To The Future trilogy, with the date being June 27, 2012, the date the hoax image went viral. The creator of the image, a social medial manager by the name of Steve Berry, created the image to promote the Blu-ray box set release of the trilogy. This is not the first time such a hoax image was passed around the internet.  I remember my reaction to the first hoax image. It progressed from "Whoa! Really?" to "Wow, I feel old," to reflection on just what I, personally, and we, as a society, have and have not accomplished in the past thirty years. Thirty years…yes, that was the the temporal distance traveled that I remembered from the movie…it didn't quite add up. Sure enough, I googled it and the original date they travelled to in the movie was [October 21, 2015](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tf8mPsvcOs). Although incorrect, it was still fun to imagine, and the thoughts it provoked are good ones.

With the most recent hoax, I began to ponder just how easy it would be to photoshop any new date onto the image. Then I realized that it would be relatively trivial to write a program to generate images for any date…and why hadn't anyone done this yet?

At this point I had no choice but to slam on the gas and hit 88 mph…

The whole project, from conception, to buying the domain, to photoshopping the individual digits, to coding the java to generate the image files, to the javascript to set the time to the visitor's current time, to placing the social medial sharing buttons took about seven hours. The photoshopping was the most tedious and boring, by far.

The end result is a one page web site designed for people to trick their gullible friends over the next three years. It would be nice if it went viral and actually generated some revenue from the single AdSense ad on the page, but even if I don't see a dime, I had a lot of fun building it, even if it meant barely getting any sleep last night.

[![It's Back To The Future Day](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-29-back-to-the-future-day-hoax-generator/7465810292_66b1b524ac.jpg)](http://www.itsbacktothefutureday.com/ "It's Back To The Future Day by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")

[www.ItsBackToTheFutureDay.com](http://www.itsbacktothefutureday.com/)


Back To The Future Day Hoax Generator


![](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-29-open-letter-to-opponents-of-obamacare/200px-Caduceus.svg.png)Dear people who oppose ObamaCare,

I'm curious about your thinking about possible solutions to the messed up US healthcare system. One starting assumption that leads directly to opposing ObamaCare is that healthcare is not a right, that poor people should not be given healthcare and allowed to die simply because they are poor. If you agree that only the wealthy deserve to be healthy, then you are a cruel, inhumane person and please stop reading this letter. Now that it's just us civilized folk, let's talk about the problem of how to fairly provide healthcare to everyone. Let's assume, for the sake of constructive discussion, that we can't just wipe the slate clean and design a brand new healthcare system from scratch. The biggest problem with the US healthcare system at the moment is called the Preexisting Condition Problem, namely that insurers regularly refuse to offer insurance to people who are already sick. From a business profit point of view, this makes perfect sense, but the end result is sick people dying with no healthcare, which you already agreed is bad. Therefore, **we must prohibit insurers from denying care because of preexisting conditions**. It's the only option that doesn't involve cutting the insurance companies out of the system entirely (which isn't feasible with our corporate-funded legislature).

Okay, so now we've done away with the Preexisting Condition Problem, so we're done, right? Wrong. Now we have the Free Loader Problem. If insurance companies can no longer deny me coverage if I'm sick, why should I buy insurance until I get sick? That would be a waste of money! However, if everyone does this, the cost of insurance for the sick skyrockets prohibitively, and the whole system collapses. Any universal healthcare system **only works when healthy people are paying for the healthcare of the sick people**.

So, everyone who can afford to must be paying money into the system, whether they're sick or healthy. Most modern first world nations do this via taxes, which is generally how societies solve "everybody needs to chip in to pay for X" problems. What the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare) does is **remove that tax** by allowing you to pick and choose among a market of health insurance providers. As long as you can prove that you're insuring yourself, you don't have to pay the obvious tax that is needed if we're going to keep the poor from dying in the street without healthcare.

My question, to people who oppose ObamaCare (and also accept that healthcare is a right), is where, exactly, you see flaws in the reasoning I've just presented to you? Perhaps I'm not as bright as you, but I personally cannot think of a better tweak to our system that addresses both the Preexisting Condition Problem and the Free Rider Problem, **and** is extremely generous to the health insurance corporations.

Sincerely,

Erik


Open Letter To Opponents of ObamaCare


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450372116_4014fbf091_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450372116_93c243197f_t.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie"/>
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If you asked me to list my top five favorite foods or beverages to consume in Spain, _morcilla_, goat cheese and red wine would make the list for sure. _Morcilla_ is a spicy blood sausage. There are many types of blood sausage all called _morcilla_, but the most common and best is _morcilla de León_ or _morcilla de Burgos_, which consists of pig meat, pig blood, pig lard, rice, onion and spices stuffed into pig intestine. The blood makes it jet black.

Recently, my wife came across a recipe for individual serving pies containing _morcilla_, red wine and goat cheese. When she mentioned it to me, I darted out to the store to buy the ingredients. Last Sunday, we made them. Needless to say, they were quite rich. Here's the recipe:

## Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie

Single serving tapas with Spanish blood sausage, caramelized onions, red wine and goat cheese inside a crispy pastry shell.

Published by Erik Rasmussen on June 27, 2012

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450372116_4014fbf091_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450372116_93c243197f.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie"/>
</a>

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Total time: 50 minutes

Yield: 6 pies

–––

Serving size: 1 pie

Calories per serving: 720

Fat per serving: 50 g

### Ingredients

- pastry dough (500 grams)
- 1 _morcilla_ sausage (200 grams)
- 1 small onion
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- a glass of red wine (100 mL)
- 6 slices of goat cheese, _bí»che_ style (300 grams)
- 1 egg yolk

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450306116_1bc55b2b54_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Ingredients">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450306116_41a9df4ebf.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Ingredients"/>
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### Instructions

1\. Chop up the onions very finely.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450309700_bd53f04c56_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Chopped Onions">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450309700_9416d8a172.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Chopped Onions"/>
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2\. Sauté the onions very slowly (20 minutes) at low heat until they become soft and translucent. You can speed up this step with more heat if you are in a hurry.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450313524_921d89bd9f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Caramelizing Onions">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450313524_42515f3501.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Caramelizing Onions"/>
</a>

3\. Add the wine and sugar. Let simmer until most of the wine has evaporated.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450325952_ba4d27d1ff_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Wine and Onions">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450325952_67f28dc93f.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Wine and Onions"/>
</a>

4\. Peel the skin off the _morcilla_ and break it up into the frying pan.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450329988_d5d5d8811e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Morcilla, Wine and Onions">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450329988_b513c1c1a2.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Morcilla, Wine and Onions"/>
</a>

5\. Preheat the oven to 190Â° C (375Â° F).

6\. Press the pastry dough with a rolling pin until you have 12 squares (12 cm x 12 cm, 5" x 5"). You could make circles, too, if you like, but you know what they say about the shape of pies:

Ï€ r Â²

7\. Put down a layer of the _morcilla_ and onions.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450343966_23d98dda4c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Morcilla Filling">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450343966_3de02ee864.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Morcilla Filling"/>
</a>

8\. Trim the outer part of the cheese off, and place on top of the meat (the photo shows the untrimmed cheese, but I recommend trimming).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450347340_382752b618_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Cheese Added">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450347340_48dd2e3194.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Cheese Added"/>
</a>

9\. Fold over, or place another square on top, and press around the border with a fork.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450337676_011f2148a2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Pastry">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450337676_7aa3522a7b.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Pastry"/>
</a>

10\. Place the pies on a sheet of parchment paper on an oven tray.

11\. With a pastry brush, lightly paint the top of each pie with egg yolk.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450353320_cdd65fcefe_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - In Oven">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450353320_379c519f4a.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - In Oven"/>
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12\. Bake for 20 minutes at 190Â° C (375Â° F).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450356964_80b353c060_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Done">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450356964_7df0b809c5.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie - Done"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450363190_a5c5a73d4c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-27-tapa-recipe-morcilla-and-goat-cheese-pie/7450363190_14fc526570.jpg" alt="Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie"/>
</a>

### Conclusion

As with many things in life, there are times in cooking in which ingredients come together to form something far superior to the sum of the individual parts. The converse is also true; there are times in which a combination of wonderful things is actually worse than the items taken separately. It saddens me greatly to report that this recipe is one of the latter instances. These little pies are delicious – are quite rich and filling – but if you gave me the option between one of these pies or a piece of _morcilla_, a piece of goat cheese, and some bread, I'd rather consume them separately. Both _morcilla_ and goat cheese have very strong flavors, and they end up muffling each other when eaten together.

Still, if you've got a hankering for pig blood and want to impress your friends at a party with some very Spanish tapas, these pies are just what you need!


Tapa Recipe: Morcilla and Goat Cheese Pie


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7441315562_3f1e33e6e9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="San Juan Sausagefest">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7441315562_6d04853d65_t.jpg" alt="San Juan Sausagefest"/>
</a>

The town where I live is celebrating its annual _San Juan_ festival this week. Most Spanish towns have a town saint, and for many of them, that role is filled by Saint John The Baptist. There are several things that I love about this festival. It amuses me that it's really just a thinly veiled version of the pagan bonfire solstice festivals [held across Europe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer) (the bonfire is to shoo away the witches, in case you didn't know).

Riffing off the Valencian [_falles_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falles) tradition of building elaborate, yet explosive, parade floats to burn, the townspeople of Colindres also make little miniature floats, usually the size of small cars, which are wheeled, by hand, around town before finding their way to the designated place to be judged, doused in gasoline, and ignited. I've always been fascinated by people willing to put so much creative artistic effort into transient works, like [sand castles](/2007/04/09/crumbling-sand-art/) or [enormous floats with real flowers](/2009/08/30/batalla-de-flores-the-day-after/), that will only last as long as [a cactus flower](/2007/06/20/into-a-cactus-flower/) before withering away. But what I especially like about the work my fellow citizens do for _San Juan_ is that each float is a political protest. Every float is made to represent some complaint that the citizens have about the way the mayor is running the town. For years people complained about not having a swimming pool, and the town hall built a swimming pool. Then people complained about not having an _indoor_ swimming pool, and now construction on the indoor pool is almost complete.

I only got a photo of one float, which I saw parked outside a bar in town while its creators were getting festive inside.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7447978360_9b53b01706_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Miniature Soccer Field - Colindres, San Juan">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7447978360_a54e9b6714.jpg" alt="Miniature Soccer Field - Colindres, San Juan"/>
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It is a startlingly accurate model of our local municipal soccer field, which I've never seen with any grass around the goals or in center field. They have represented this with pigs and a cactus in the bald spots. Another float was a very realistic portrayal of the town church and brickyard around it.

"The symbolism of extracting anger and worries into a physical object and then burning it in a big party has got to be healthy for a society on some level."  
\-Armchair Psychologist

Each group that makes a float also gives a speech to go along with it, and the speeches are rarely written in prose. They all rhyme; some are recited as poetry and others performed as songs, but they all carry serious political complaints. This method of using art to both entertain and complain is beautiful to me. The point is made without being harsh or mean, and, even better, the politicians seem to actually _listen_ to the complaints. Fantastic!

Here are some children reading some rhyming complaints. Pardon the camera spin, but I wanted to show that hundreds of people were present.

<iframe width="505" height="314" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/auYl4Ws3Tss" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Somehow the floats and presentations are judged, and best ones receive checks of between 200€ and 400€ (not bad!). The floats, upon which hours of thought and labor were spent, are thrown together in one big pile, doused in gasoline by a local firefighter, and the overall winner then gets to light the bonfire.

<iframe width="505" height="314" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/i-qgZji6iHc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

It also didn't hurt the general mood in the crowd that this event took place only an hour after Spain defeated France to make it to the semi-finals of the Euro2012 fíºtbol tournament.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7441315562_3f1e33e6e9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="San Juan Sausagefest">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7441315562_6d04853d65_n.jpg" alt="San Juan Sausagefest"/>
</a>

The following day, Sunday, the was a procession up to a special mass at our medieval church, the _Iglesia de San Juan_. The townsfolk were encouraged by the festival program to then have a picnic lunch by the church (bring your own food), but then there was a [merienda](/2012/02/16/a-guide-to-spanish-meal-names/) provided free later in the afternoon. It was quite a sausagefest. There were women there, but the afternoon snack consisted of hotdogs.

One of my pet peeves about my adopted country is how they refer to hotdogs. Several times each year, I am annoyed by the fact that Spaniards refer to hotdogs and sausages with the same word: _salchicha_. I understand that technically a hotdog is a "frankfurter sausage", but "sausage", to me, means something a butcher makes with spices. A "hotdog" is just mystery meat made in some factory somewhere. I was looking forward to some sausage, but when I saw them opening up hundreds of packs of _Oscar Meyer_ wieners, boiling them, and putting them in hotdog buns, I was quite disappointed. Nora enjoyed her hotdog, though.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7441302442_027a180884_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="San Juan Sausagefest">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7441302442_a518378381.jpg" alt="San Juan Sausagefest"/>
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"My wiener has a first name…"

<iframe width="505" height="314" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dtclyMJKQVE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

It was a wonderful weekend, with some very welcome summer weather. We very much enjoyed taking part in our town's festivities.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7448313400_3730d412e6_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Eating a Chocolate Ice Cream Cone">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-26-san-juan-festivities-in-colindres/7448313400_dd8b2b7d62.jpg" alt="Eating a Chocolate Ice Cream Cone"/>
</a>

_¡Viva San Juan!_


San Juan Festivities in Colindres


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422617088_336b3844c1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422617088_10dba8635e_t.jpg" alt="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012"/>
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This morning, the children at the local school were having some sort of play day outside with events and competitions (those were the best days of school, weren't they?), and there was some pop music playing. When I was coming home with the daily groceries, there was a song playing by a group called _El Sueño de Morfeo_ (the dream of Morpheus). The song playing was their most catchy, breakout song, [_Nunca Volverá_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJgOGyXE2gU). I found myself humming it as I put away the groceries, and I thought about how nice it was to see them, by complete chance, for the first time [back in 2006](/2006/07/20/el-sueno-de-morfeo/).  Every year for the annual San Juan (solstice) festivities in Colindres, the town hall springs for a live concert with free admission. This year, it was going to be some band that I had never heard of and I wasn't remotely interested. When my wife got home from work, she told me that she had heard that the band they had scheduled had to cancel at the last minute because of an emergency, and that somehow, they had found another band to perform that night: _El Sueño de Morfeo_!

Unfortunately, we didn't have a baby sitter, and my poor daughter, Nora, is _not_ a fan of loud music or firecrackers or anything loud at all, really. But we thought we'd give the concert a shot anyway.

As soon as the intro music started for the warm-up act, Nora turned and ran – pulling her mother's hand – to the far wall of the park where the concert was to be held. We ended up having to leave. We went to sit outside a nearby bar for a beer, but then there were some fireworks, and Nora and I had to go inside the bar to escape the loud bangs. Timidly we came back out ten minutes later. The fireworks had been to announce the start of the main act, and we could hear some songs that we recognized.

Like wolves hunting prey, we made a wide circle around some buildings and approached the concert venue from the furthest point, coming to a place where Nora could stand to be without crying wildly. So we parked there, 200 meters from the stage, and my wife and I took turns going up to the stage to see the band. Due to the short notice and total lack of announcement, there were very few people at the concert. If it had been advertised properly, young people from neighboring towns would've crowded in.

_El Sueño de Morfeo_ are good performers. The lead singer really fills the stage with her presence and they perform well. We had a very pleasant time at the concert.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422606844_b4b874948a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422606844_e427a3698b.jpg" alt="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012"/>
</a>

The lead vocalist, Raquel del Rosario, is incredibly sexy. At least I find her very attractive.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422598836_42fc4af076_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422598836_c0582c6251.jpg" alt="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012"/>
</a>

I think I drive too slowly for her tastes, though, as she is recently divorced from Formula One driver, Fernando Alonso.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422592712_c8b0395983_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422592712_e8394ec655.jpg" alt="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012"/>
</a>

It took me several seconds to determine if she was actually wearing trousers or not.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422623446_4ccfb88835_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422623446_8fea96a1a8.jpg" alt="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012"/>
</a>

The lead guitarist has a floppy mop of hair.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422603916_8c5efe0cbb_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422603916_7090700e64.jpg" alt="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012"/>
</a>

Taking my turn at 200 meters with Nora.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422617088_336b3844c1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-22-el-sueno-de-morfeo-in-colindres/7422617088_10dba8635e.jpg" alt="Sueño de Morfeo - Colindres - 2012"/>
</a>

We had a lot of fun, despite having to take turns having it.

See if you can spot the song they're covering, in Spanish, here:

<iframe width="505" height="314" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/j0VKyUnXu0w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


El Sueño de Morfeo in Colindres

ï¿¼Visiting Spain in 2012


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172791799_5bdd926253_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Blind Wine Taste Test">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172791799_7fee689247_t.jpg" alt="Blind Wine Taste Test"/>
</a>

Have you ever heard the claim that some wine experts, when blindfolded, [cannot actually tell white wine from red wine](http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/10/you-are-not-so-smart-why-we-cant-tell-good-wine-from-bad/247240/)? My gut reaction was the same as everyone's, "That's ridiculous, they're _so different_!!" But I know enough about psychology and illusions to know that [the wine industry is mostly bullshit](/2009/10/19/the-wine-industry-is-mostly-bullshit/), and it's very possible that we might be kidding ourselves. Ever since hearing this claim, I've been dying to run an experiment on myself. This past weekend, I finally had the time and wine and test subjects… My parents, wife and I drank wine blindfolded to see how good we were at sensing the wine in the glass without our eyes. 

### The Wines

We went to my local wine store with the intention of buying the cheapest red, a really expensive (within reason) red, and a regular white wine. After [this insightful comment](/2011/11/18/crin-roja-genius-subliminal-wine-packaging/#comment-367884657) on the subject by a vintner friend, I wanted the white wine to be as similar to the red, in grape variety and region, as possible.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7357979470_a3d0620f70_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Cheap Red WIne">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7357979470_7fe4257ba7_n.jpg" alt="Cheap Red WIne"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7357952422_24807d12b5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Padiave Rose Rioja">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7357952422_c07e8d56f1_n.jpg" alt="Padiave Rose Rioja"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172731891_1cac661e5c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Faustino V White">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172731891_f1486d275a_n.jpg" alt="Faustino V White"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172738647_17fb1e7904_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Faustino I - Gran Reserva">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172738647_a7133b0f73_n.jpg" alt="Faustino I - Gran Reserva"/>
</a>

From left to right: el cheapo, rosé, white, and expensive red.

The cheap wine was a 1.75€ (not the absolute cheapest, but a good representative) bottle of young [Tempranillo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempranillo) from the Rioja region that was bottled for and labeled by the wine shop we bought it in. It's the kind of house wine included for free with restaurant meals in Spain. It's potable, but below my standards for daily dinner wine.

We weren't going to buy a rosé, but it was from the Rioja region and I thought it might add further confusion, blurring the line between white and red. The rosé was 2.90€, fairly cheap, but rosés tend to be cheaper than reds.

The white wine was of the Viura, or [Macabeo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macabeo), wine variety, the most common white from the Rioja region. It was also 2.90€. Faustino is one of the more famous wineries in Rioja. Pro tip: The lower the roman numeral on the Faustino bottle, the better the wine (they go up to Faustino VII).

Last we have the _Faustino I: Gran Reserva_, coming in at the bargain price of 19.90€. I rarely stray into the double digit wines on the top shelf, but we wanted a wine that the industry was certain was _definitely better_ than the cheap red. I figured that if we couldn't tell a 20€ bottle from a 2€ bottle, then we could save quite a bit of money over the course of a wine-drinking lifetime.

### The Procedure

Although the pinnacle of unbiased scientific experiments is the double-blind experiment, I highly recommend that the person pouring the wine _not_ be blindfolded.

It was tempting to wear white coats and safety goggles and carry clipboards, but in the end we decided that all we really needed was a scarf blindfold and some water and bread to cleanse our palates. We took turns being the blindfolded contestant. Small post-it notes were used to label the glasses A, B, C and D. Similar notes were added to the wine bottles. The wine was poured. Although the pinnacle of unbiased scientific experiments is the double-blind experiment, I highly recommend that the person pouring the wine _not_ be blindfolded. Once the contestant was blindfolded and the wine poured, label swaps were performed between glasses and bottles, taking special care to do the same swap on both glass and bottle (if you swap the label on glass A with the one on glass D, you must swap the labels on bottles A and D as well). Once several (0 - 5) labels swaps were completed, the blindfolded taster had no idea which wine was which. Then the taster requested each glass in order, sniffing and sipping each one until an idea was formed as to its identity. Some of us only tasted each wine once, and some of us went through them all three times, sipping water between wines.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172789731_e790f1e10e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Blind Wine Taste Test">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172789731_f4ca4c9514.jpg" alt="Blind Wine Taste Test"/>
</a>

Betsy concentrates.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172791799_5bdd926253_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Blind Wine Taste Test">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7172791799_7fee689247.jpg" alt="Blind Wine Taste Test"/>
</a>

Marga sniffs a Gran Reserva.

### The Results

We had four wines and four tasters. The guesses as to each wine's identity is listed below each taster.

table.wine-results { width: 100%; } table.wine-results th, table.wine-results td { text-align:center; padding: 3px; } table.wine-results td.correct { background-color: #ccffcc; }

Betsy

Erik

Marga

Paul

Cheap Red

Expensive Red

Rosé

Cheap Red

White

Rosé

Rosé

Cheap Red

White

Cheap Red

White

White

White

Rosé

Rosé

Expensive Red

Cheap Red

Expensive Red

Expensive Red

Expensive Red

Correct answers are shown in green.

### Observations

First of all, _thank goodness_ that the overarching trend in the data is that _YES!_, we can tell a 20€ wine from a bunch of cheap stuff.

Erik, Marga and Paul drink red wine almost exclusively, and never ever drink rosé, so they were thrown off a bit by the rosé, and couldn't really distinguish it from the white or cheap red.

Betsy, who is more experienced in white wines, nailed the white and rosé with ease. In fact, after her first tasting of each of them, she told us her preliminary mapping, and she was exactly right about every wine. But then she asked to try the two reds again and changed her mind about them, actually preferring the less odiferous cheap red.

All the tasters let out some sort of "Wow!" exclamation upon putting the expensive red to their nose. It really was a violent olfactory experience. I don't recall being so nasally assaulted before; perhaps the blindfold heightened the other senses.

Going into the test, I was most certain of my ability to identify the expensive red and the white, and I am absolutely delighted that I got those two correct.

### Conclusion

Distinguishing red from white wine was _MUCH_ more difficult than I expected it would be. I completely understand how expert wine tasters, when given wines of sufficiently high quality and similar grape variety, would be completely clueless as to the color. Like all good experiments, this one was both surprising and educational.

If you feel this experiment was flawed in any way, please feel free to donate money or wine for subsequent trials. No grants will be refused.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7357995520_539630d4be_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Blind Wine Taste Test">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-11-blindfolded-wine-taste-test/7357995520_32c47c95c8_z.jpg" alt="Blind Wine Taste Test"/>
</a>


Blindfolded Wine Taste Test: Can you distinguish white from red? Cheap from expensive?


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-01-youre-gonna-wanna-read-this/7315194916_0ace113569_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Gonna Wanna">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2012-06-01-youre-gonna-wanna-read-this/7315194916_d38f6732ab_t.jpg" alt="Gonna Wanna"/>
</a>

Children are excellent mimics; it's how we all learn to behave like we do. Everyone has heard the clichéd stories of how a child with verbally abusive parents will invent verbally abusive dialog between his toy dolls, or how a child of smokers will pretend to smoke. I like to think of myself as pretty introspective and self-aware; I know my personal vices and weaknesses. So I was surprised to notice, recently, a behavior in my daughter for which I am completely responsible, but was totally unaware that I was doing it myself.  I am referring to the use of the two verbal phrase contractions _gonna_ and _wanna_. The phrase "going to" means completely different things in the following two sentences:

> I'm going to the market.
> 
> I'm going to tell you something.

One of the side effects of learning a foreign languages is that you become acutely aware of when a word in your own language has two different, often subtle, meanings in different contexts. Spanish, of course, is a bad example in this case since it also uses the [going-to future](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going-to_future) construct, but the fact that only one of those phrases can have "gonna" substituted in – and still make sense – is proof of the difference.

The fascinating thing I've noticed in my daughter's speech is that she will only ever use "going to" with the first sentence, and will _always_ use "gonna" for the second. As far as her verbal neurons are concerned, they are two completely different verbs.

Seeing this verbal reflection in the offspring mirror made me realize that _I always do that too!_

Using common, but not truly text-book proper, contractions like "gonna" and "wanna" is the sign of a truly native speaker. The first lesson in affecting a foreign accent (just ask Sacha Baron Cohen) is to eschew all contractions. Doing only that is enough to make people ask you where you're from. My wife, for instance, who speaks, reads and writes better English than I do Spanish, uses fewer accepted contractions like "can't" or "won't", and when she does, it sounds odd in some way I can't cannot put my finger on. I'm sure I sound even more strange when I attempt Spanish contractions.

I find it interesting that, as I type this, my realtime spellchecker is perfectly happy with gonna and wanna. They are so embedded in native English that they are even acceptable, by spellchecker standards, in informal type.

Part of me is annoyed to discover that I don't speak textbook proper English, but a bigger part of me is pleased to be teaching my daughter speech patterns that will make her sound completely native in American English.


9 posts from June, 2012