I've never heard of ramps before I read that article.

I feel like someone used fiddlehead ferns on Top Chef once, but I'm not sure.

My most adventurous fruit/veggie outing this weekend was a banana and some overripe grapes.

Bon, were they a little slimy?

IIRC they were grilled in a salad, so I don't think so.

That's where Kansas City Rep's prop storage is. They have a pretty amazing collection of stuff there, all amazingly well organized and cataloged. The tunnels are all large enough for semi trucks to easily navigate.

I spent many hours down there, sorting and searching! We made up stories about the people who worked down there full time. We speculated that they would be the last to know if nuclear armageddon occurred! They would only know when the snack truck failed to come around.

It also gets very, very dark when the power fails! I was down there with another grad student when that happened. The flashlight that was supposed to be by the door didn't have a battery, so I felt my way to the hand props area and found the little pen lights I had used to make fairy wands for Midsummer Nights' Dream. I then had to walk all the way into the deepest part of the cave where the other grad student was stranded! On the way back out all these little yellow green "eyes" appeared in the darkness! It was the glow-tape stuck on the backs of all the prop furniture!

Also hilarious: I ate ramps last night.

Eons ago, when we lived in Oak Ridge, TN, my father wrote a Sci-Fi story about aliens who came there to get ramps to fuel their space ship! That's all I can think of when I hear about them.

I felt my way to the hand props area and found the little pen lights I had used to make fairy wands for Midsummer Nights' Dream. I then had to walk all the way into the deepest part of the cave where the other grad student was stranded! On the way back out all these little yellow green "eyes" appeared in the darkness! It was the glow-tape stuck on the backs of all the prop furniture!

This image is giving me great happiness.

That is indeed a great anecdote about subterranean KC.

have never heard of ramps until right then, had to look up what they were.

laundry fold and put away. Tivo cleared. I think mac will be home in 30 min - an hour, I had hoped to get some stuff listed for sale, but not sure I can swing it.

I have been on a date and survived. It was just a meeting over lunch but we seemed to hit it off. First date as an adult.

This image is giving me great happiness.

It was like being in a horror movie "The props have eyes!"

eta: congrats, Sue!

For your consideration, William Carlos Williams captures the true meaning of polar bear:

"The Polar Bear"

his coat resembles the snow
deep snow
the male snow
which attacks and kills

silently as it falls muffling
the world
to sleep that
the interrupted quiet return

to lie down with us
its arms
about our necks
muderously a little while