New York's High Line in mid-December.

Above: Doug (left) and Rebecca walking south on the High Line. We started at the north end and walked down to Sean's office at West 22nd.

 

 

Can Pope Francis get any better?

"I invite even non-believers to desire peace. (Join us) with your desire, a desire that widens the heart. Let us all unite, either with prayer or with desire, but everyone, for peace," he said, drawing sustained applause from the crowd.
Source

 

Merry Christmas Eve, y'all.

 

I'm very happy with my book tree.

This was very good. Onion, bacon, and apple tart. Or quiche.

 

I got this recipe from another blogger, Zazzy at zazamataz.com. Below is her recipe re-created in my shorthand style. For a more thoughtful and nuanced recipe see her site.

 

Make or buy a single pie crust

 

Cook bacon strips (I used about 8 for the tart shown here)

Remove bacon from pan

Saute a lot of chopped onions in the bacon fat

 

Add salt, pepper, and

1 peeled green apple cut into smallish pieces

 

After the onions and apple are nicely cooked, crumble the bacon on top, stir it up, and cool it off a bit

 

Add onions to pie crust

Whisk together 4 eggs and 1/2 cup milk (or cream)

Pour it over the onion mixture

Sprinkle with shredded cheese

Bake in preheated (375 degree) oven for 40 minutes

 

It was especially good the next day.

 

I made my own crust using this recipe. And I par-baked the crust, as suggested by Zazzy, something I've never done before and never really knew about, although I might have guessed what it was.

 

When Doug asked what we were having for dinner and I said onion tart I don't think he knew exactly what to expect. After dinner I asked if calling it a bacon-onion quiche would have given him a better picture of what he was going to eat, and he said yes. "Tart" conjures up sweet; quiche conjures up salty. This is definitely salty, with just a hint of that sweet apple. I think you could leave out the apple and/or the bacon and it would still be good. You could even possibly leave out the cheese, or use a lot less.

 

[Bottom picture is evidence that I lack impulse control.]

What freezing rain sounds like.

 

The noise is mostly, but not totally, coming from the rain/ice hitting the canvas overhang on the front porch. Some of the noise is coming from the rain hitting the frozen ground, sidewalk, and steps. We get worse weather but this variety, typical of December, is pretty nasty for anyone in a car.

Seven hours after this video was taken it's still raining but the temperatures are supposed to creep up above freezing overnight so I hope there will be just wet roads by the time we have to be on them in the morning.

Cookie money.

For 2 weeks I've been doing something that really makes very little sense. Inspired by a friend who recently became a paid freelance copy-editor for an SEO company, I applied too and was hired. Three weeks ago I barely knew what SEO meant. Today I know a little about it but there's still a whole lot I don't know.

I don't know if I'm working for a white hat or a black hat SEO outfit, or for a shade of gray in between. Their website says they are white hat, but that doesn't totally reassure me. I feel quite sure that I'm not personally doing anything illegal but I don't know what the rest of the company is doing. And I'm not sure what legal even means when it comes to SEO.

I know that I'm making about $1 or $2 an hour, when you count all the time I spend checking my email. I earned $11 my first week, $13 last week.  I think of it as my cookie-buying money. I love to copy-edit and proofread. It's extremely satisfying and after decades of doing it, it comes pretty easily to me. But wow is there a lot of crap being written for godknowswhere on the Internet. Blogs and newsletters I guess. But whose blogs? A major chain book store is one client, a recognizable blue-enveloped coupon company is another. Somebody's blogging about coupons? Apparently. Where?

Writers are instructed to never mention the company in the articles. Instead they must use certain keywords -- an example would be cool deals on eReaders -- which should be worked into the copy three or four times. Writers make $5 a story so a writer who can pump out four an hour could make $20 an hour. Most of the stories are quite awful. Competently written, but lacking much in the way of news or consumer advice or useful information. Could you string together 600 words about how to use coupons online to get discounts on hotels in Delhi?

All of this feels a little dishonest and I hope it's not. It's just advertising, right? Advertising 101 these days. Like Mad Men but with the Internet. 21st century would-be Don Drapers and Peggy Olsons sitting in their PJs in front of laptops clacking out blather about baked beans....or the Lumia 2520 tablet by Nokia.

I don't know how long I'll do this. Although it's fun editing, it's not fun keeping my eye on my computer screen from about 2 PM until sometimes 10 PM or later, waiting for the writers to finish the stories I've been assigned to edit. This is seriously eating into my reading time, and I probably won't tolerate that for long. I don't let it interfere with dinner though, which means about 2 hours of inattention on my part while the stories pile up waiting for me to get to them. The workload varies wildly. On some days there's nothing to do, and on others there are so many stories to be written and edited that the supervisor of the writing/editing team peppers all of us with short little emails throughout the evening saying "There's a lot more to do tonight gang so let's speed up a little so everyone can sign out soon!" They like using the word "gang" in emails. An attempt to make us feel like we're all part of one big happy family I guess. A family working for about a quarter of the minimum wage.