I HAS SHARPIE, I IS EKSPURT!

The chatter yesterday was about Donald Trump drawing on a Weather Service map to include Alabama in the path of Dorian, which was quite transparent, seeing as the only state he recognizes is the one where he owns a golf course: Scotland.

Alabama is profoundly grateful for the attention. Oh golly yes.


"The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned of a "life-threatening storm surge and dangerous winds" for the coasts of Caledonia, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia, all the way up to Chesapeake Bay."

Source: Hurricane Dorian: US braced - BBC

Everything between Scotland and Maryland. Alabama isn't there at all. But all over The South residents are stockpiling grits, water, and golf balls.

Mary, a fellow pipe-smoker in Conway, South Carolina, posted a picture of her preparation: bread, wine, a carpet, bottles of distilled spirits, at least five different high quality pipe tobaccos, tampers, lighters, matches, two nice candlesticks, and a crystal decanter of sherry.

It's a very NICE crystal decanter.

Makes me wish I lived in the path.

Still, I wonder what I would do for food down there. It IS the South. No actual Chinatown with Hong Kong Milk Tea, salt fish, a vast selection of noodles, condiments, freethinkers, or sourdough bread. An interesting and never-the-less fine place, which I might visit sometime, during that time of year when it isn't excessively warm and humid, and the mosquito burden is at its lowest. Not frog-spawning season, in other words.
Which is when?

There is hot sauce there. So it's quite tolerable. Though Mary does not seem to have stocked any, which seems like a foolish oversight.


I added hot sauce to my rice porridge yesterday.


鱘龍魚片粥

A lovely bowl of fish slice congee (魚片粥 'yü pin juk'), with small chunks of what may indeed have been sturgeon (鱘龍魚 'cham lung yü'), plus chopped scallion & slivered ginger. As a smoker, as well as a barbarian, I felt the need to augment it ever so slightly with Sriracha and ground pepper, and it would have been truly wonderful with a fresh oil stick (油條 'yau tiu').
But they don't offer that.

The character 鱘 ('cham') which by itself means "sturgeon" counts twenty three strokes. Why 龍 ('lung'; "dragon") is added to the word is because Chinese is NOT monosyllabic, as often thought, but tends toward bisyllabism. A second vowel often feels essential.

Sturgeon swim in the dictionary under fish (魚) with 12 additional strokes.



AFTER THOUGHT

In the early evening I was on the front steps smoking a pipe. The fog had already hit the top of Nob Hill, where the tall buildings were fading in and out of sight. White, grey, silver. Across the street Mr. Sieuw left to get the car, and a few minutes later his wife came out carrying the dog to wait for him.
It seemed to take a long while.

He must have parked several streets away.

It's been months since I've seen him.
Maybe he doesn't smoke anymore.
I know he still plays mahjong.



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