Johnny Depp has instincts I admire.

[link]

He has a yacht in the Caribbean, and it's outfitted with velvet and plush furniture and dim lighting. It looks like an early 20th-century steam yacht.

I saw that today on Jezebel, Jesse. I'm tempted to get a copy.

X-posted with Spikes, sorry for the spam:

Question for your smart cooking types:

I roasted a whole slew of veggies last night (you guys inspired me) and I forgot about them, so they're a leetle bit soggier than I like (but still really good--I ate a large plate last night and it was delicious). I have a lot of leftovers. Am I nuts in thinking I can puree them, add cream, and voila, cream of veggie soup? The veggies were red onion, asperagus, green beans, fingerling potatoes (with sea salt, olive oil and fresh rosemary).

Help a girl out, please?

Timelies all!

Another rainy Monday...

Sounds good to me, javachik. Or maybe a fritatta?

It looks interesting, right, Amy?

It does, Jesse. I'm just not sure I'll be able to find it up here, but possibly B&N will have it.

Or maybe a fritatta?

Yeah, that's my usual fallback. Hence the soup-making. It was gorgeous all weekend but we're going to have rain for three days starting tomorrow; that's soup weather, right there!

Bizarre Facebook friend requests: my ex-uncle. He was divorced from my aunt in the mid-1980s; I'm pretty sure I last saw him when I was 10. I mean, I did like him when I was 10, and his kids are my cousins and we're pals (especially the one close in age to me). But?

Yeah, that's my usual fallback.

Heh.

I was going to put this in Literary, but I love it as much as a "what a cool thing to do" story as a book story:

The Book Bike

...Since 2008, he has rode his custom-built Book Bike into public parks across Chicago every weekend, weather permitting. Heading from park to park, Levinson distributes books donated by publishers to anyone interested...

"Free" is baked into the Book Bike's mission statement: Levinson only appears at public parks and free events, ensuring that there is no barrier to entry. As he explains, "the mission is to build and cherish a private library regardless of class or economic state, which is why the Book Bike is only at public parks. It's a place where every single person, whether you have a roof over your head or don't, has the right and privilege to be."

"I believe that one of the greatest gifts of being alive, of being human, is that of literacy. If you can read, your world suddenly becomes wide open, all knowledge is at your fingertips and there is no telling where that can lead someone in life. 'Teach a man to fish' is such a tired maxim. Why can't the common phrase be 'teach a person to read'?"...

Levinson is one practioner of literary activism, but he's far from the only one. Another notable literary activist is Luis Soriano, the man behind the Biblioburro project. Soriano loads his library on the back of two donkeys and delivers books to impoverished rural communities in Colombia. As described in a New York Times article about Soriano, the teacher is directly fostering bibliophilia in communities with low literacy rates...

"The goal is to hit as many parks as possible, and as many communities, well to do and not well to do, so nobody is excluded. " he says. "I ride a bike to a park, hang out on my day off, I crack open a book and just chill. I dont take it for granted that I can do this; on the contrary, I do everything I can to make the most of it. What a wonderful way to spend the day."