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My biggest cooking failures are in not properly judging my sweetheart’s taste. Basically, she can’t eat anything that has a vowel in its name (or so it seems). Once I find something she’ll eat, I keep using the same recipe … without any changes whatsoever.
I also have cooking failures when I cook for myself, but they are no big deal.
My brother and I are chile-heads, so I would have to say my favorite type of foods involves cooking with hot chiles. Tomorrow I will make my favorite Spanish Rice, which includes two fire-roasted Hatch chiles. My mouth is watering even as I think about it.
The Lake Pit, Largest of the La Brea Tar Pits
It’s one of those redundant names: brea in Spanish means tar, so the La Brea Tar Pits are literally the Tar Tar pits. (Similarly, Torpenhow Hill in Britain means Hillhillhill Hill.)
Martine and I haven’t visited the tar pits for almost a decade, so we drove down to Hancock Park and took a good look at what the area looked like ten thousand plus years ago. Based on the skeletons that have been fished out of the pits, there were giant sloths, mammoths, lions, camels, sabertooth tigers, and many, many dire wolves.
Skeleton of Columbian Mammoth
The archeological record shows that there were humans living in the area during the Ice Age. It couldn’t have been much fun for them to contend with their primitive weapons against so many gigantic mammals.
Visiting the pits, I am reminded of a famous line in Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, when Marlowe points to the shore of the Thames and says: “And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.”
The La Brea Tar Pits Museum is a fascinating place to visit. In addition to all the skeletons of giant mammals who perished by drowning in the pits, there is a lab which allows you to watch volunteers cleaning bones recently pulled from the pits. (There are a number of them on the grounds.)
Martine got into the spirit of the occasion by donning a dire wolf headdress:
Martine with Wolfish Smile
No, not a leader; nor a follower either!
Since I am multi-lingual, here are my favorite words in my four languages:
I’m writing this blog post.
Nothing makes me happier than travel, preferably somewhere in Latin America.
I know that, for the most part, they’re not professional, but I would have to answer the men and women who compete in the Summer Olympics: I get the feeling that there is more love and effort in their competition than in pro sports.
The key thing is to allow yourself to let go. If you place limits on your relaxation, you will have achieved nothing. The body and mind need to be at rest for part of the day. If you brag about being busy every minute of the day, it is tantamount to admitting failure.
I think it would be “absolutely,” or any other term implying a certainty I am not necessarily prepared to defend.
Tarnmoor 
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