WHEN CONTEMPLATING FLUCTUATION

A cooking video was interrupted by stock advice. What on earth makes investment bankers (or their drug-addled marketing department) think that people interested in food might wish to consider their fast-tanking portfolio at that moment? Galangal, good. Green chilies, good. Shrimp paste, also good. A gold mine in South Africa? Pharmaceuticals?
Mmm, those are maybe not strictly speaking relevant.
At least not at that precise moment.

"When prices fluctuate ... "

Or hormones. Blood sugar. Caffeine levels. Armpit sweat, worry, wind patterns ...

Yes. While considering the miracle of a hot Sumatran dish, I also deeply desire to think about the Hang Seng index, the state of my oxsters, and whether I've had enough coffee or rain this year. Because I am the modern generation and have serious ADHD.

No wonder people use drugs. It keeps them on agenda.

Sertraline is good.

The chemicals that are so often prescribed I'll happily leave to the professionals, junkies, yuppies, and modern suburban white high school kids. For me, caffeine, nicotine, highly refined sugar, capsaicin, and the sheer overload of umami in shrimp paste and pork, work wonders, and one can adjust the dosage as needed. I'm not likely to crash my car while taking them -- don't have a car in any case -- or rip out my ears.

By the way: rich buttery shortbread also is a psycho-active substance.
Gentle enough for old ladies, strong enough for truckdrivers.



The same internet page also wishes me to consider that frequent flooding and an increase in extreme weather are the future in the SF Bay Area. And while that data is indeed extremely exciting, sexy even -- mmm, flooding (!) -- as a middle-aged bachelor who lives two hundred feet above sea level and over two miles from any large body of water other than my bath tub, I prefer to ignore that. This is not the swampy mudflats of Berkeley, but halfway up a hill in San Francisco. Noodles with fatty pork, shrimp paste, chili sauce, plus galangal and lemon grass (langkuwas and serei as we call them) are, perhaps, immeasurably more fascinating.

Like sex, however, this is an intellectual conceit; this bachelor will be having a light lunch in Chinatown later, which might include shrimp paste, and / or chili sauce, probably no flooding or extreme weather, and absolutely no galangal, lemon grass, or sexual shenanigans. It will include a caffeinated beverage, probably sweetened, and will be followed by nicotine. Which latter substance in the modern world needs to be enjoyed outside, regardless of climactic conditions. Like the horrid cold. Or rip tides and sneaker waves.

Yeah, probably noodles. Fried noodles. With Sriracha and a cup of HK milk tea. After which a sandblasted briar (Becker & Musico) filled with either Atalaya (C&D for Low Country Pipe and Cigar) or Cornell & Diehl Small Batch Carolina Red Flake with Perique (2023).

The pipe I mentioned is absolutely piss-elegant, and spot on.
A very fine piece, reflecting a previous era's aesthetics.
As sexy as a lovely woman or a good tobacco.
Contemplation inducing.



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