Last night after I returned from drinks with Andrea, Lynn, and Liz at the wine cellar, as I told Lynn I would when we got off the bus, I decided to use up my space apples in an apple pie.
I launched iTunes and started Nirvana … still going now. 7+ hours, I believe, but only about 4 left. At the wine cellar I heard Neil Diamond in the background.
As for the pie … it began as one traditional apple pie, which is 8-10 cups of sliced apples, about 1/2 a cup of sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and raisins and cinnamon to taste. My taste says “a lot” for both. But I had too many apples, which I noticed when I tried to fill the crust, so I set aside the rest, made a quick bottle crust with vegetable oil (1 cup flour, pinch of salt, 2Tbsp. water, and 1/3 cup oil … you can probably reduce the vegetable oil a bit; shortening still makes a MUCH BETTER crust!), added more raisins, a bit more sugar, and some lemon juice to the apple mixture, which I added to the crust, and once the other pie was done (50 minutes) put the “new” one in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Then I added a crumbly crust to it: 3/4 cups each of chopped walnuts, flour, and brown sugar, along with a stick of butter (softened and cut in, and/or mixed by hand [fingers!]), and about 1/2 a cup of oats for good measure. I then baked it an extra 30-40 minutes, and then let it cool.
I carried both to the department today on the bus, which was a bit awkward but worked out okay. I tried both and was pleasantly surprised by my “experiment.” The other pie was also tasty, as expected, but the “new” one … I had my worries. It was sweet, dense, and tender, and it’s fun picking off the crumbly streussel-like crust and just eating the pieces. The pies disappeared quickly enough, though even after noon there were a few pieces left.
I rushed down to class so I could show videos pre-class, but I had left my video (mini-VGA–VGA) adapter at home. I at first thought it was in my bag, so I rushed upstairs, and I’m too out of shape to do that. My legs hurt. But alas … at home. But S. Korpi said the AV Pool might have some spares, so I rushed down the stairs again, and, indeed, they had several available. They were quite helpful. I showed Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah video. Then I put on the cute Knut video montage, complete with Dallas theme music, and then, when the bell rang, I passed out the quiz, playing Knut soundless in the background. Then we discussed the interview with the Turkish girl in the textbook for a few minutes before I put on Tuerkisch fuer Anfaenger. I paused it once to clarify matters at the beginning, and then just let it play. Sara got most of the jokes, it seems; Natallia got a lot, and most of the rest got bits and pieces I think, until toward then end when much of the humor was clearer and more obvious and physical. The seemed to like it.
I missed lunch with Andrea and Liz because I didn’t have all the abstracts and CVs that I needed, so I got those, printed them, wrote for another website, and then headed to the museum. Michael Hoffman was delayed and we feared we might have to do a panel first, rescheduling the keynote for later. Because the Hoffman lecture was delayed I met some of the presenters and we went to State Street for coffee, stopping eventually at Steep & Brew (Espresso Royale was packed). I chatted a bit with Friederike, who, while German, has spent her college and now graduate career in the U.S., now at UC Irvine. Back to the museum we went and I wrote notes for myself.
After Hoffman’s interesting but a bit unfocused talk — very inspiring on the thoughts-of-a-translator level, but not “practical” — we retired to the Union, where we had a coffee break and then, at 6p.m., we started the first panel of the conference, with four papers. I moderated. I did intro-paper-intro-paper-discussion x 2 … so as to group the discussions and speed things up a bit, since we were running late and had a dinner reservation at Gino’s.
Liz did an admirable job for an undergrad. The paper by Ian, about Benn, was also nice but short on concrete examples. Hers was similar … both kind of vague, and I would have preferred more *meat.* Then discussion, in which both were treated kindly by the audience. Then Andrew (on Brentanot’s “Godwi”) and Christian Weber on the translation of Spanish author Calderon by Kommerell, a dead German George-follower (1902-1942 or ’44?). Andrew’s timing was perfect, basically. Christian went over by 5 minutes, but I had it more or less under control. Still, he knew how much time he had left, and yet he still had too much and kept going. He knew it was to be a 20 minute paper, yet he had a 30-40 minute paper prepared. In any case, the discussion thereafter was briefer than the first, and we retired to Gino’s for dinner, which was rich, free (for me, at least), and filling.
Broccoli Chicken Pasta Alfredo … something like that, plus a Sprecher Black Bavarian, a glass of lemonade, and a truffle cheesecake split with Julie. I can’t complain, but it’s not good for my waistline … I really need to drop a few inches. Just a couple. Julie recommended spinning.
Jolanda gave me and Lynn a ride home. It had become foggy, especially near the lakes, and I wonder about the extent it has to do with the ice on the lakes melting. Michael Hoffman could or should be played by Rufus Sewell in the movie about his life. He’s a bit distant, though.
