Carnivore Dreams – Followers

A little repast from yesterday’s recipe taste testing of Duck Confit (which I forgot to photograph as I often do when my daughter isn’t here). I purchased the above from the Cheese Lady.  Great Irish Cheddar, a nice blue, and a Manchego.   Much more on this duck as I go for a do over.  But suffice it to say don’t use any recipe that just tells you to “wipe salt and herbs from legs with a paper towel” before braising.  They must be “washed carefully with cold water and patted dry” as instructed by French chef Paula Wolfert.  Recipes exist about half and half.   If you just LOVE salt, do one of the former.  I’ll be creating my own version with a few other adjustments of spice and technique in mind.  So stay tuned in case you are interested in trying a duck or turkey leg confit.  I’m recipe tasting and adjusting for upcoming cookbook.

In the past week or two I’ve attracted a dozen new followers–all sort of at once.  I’m not sure if I’ve done something unusual to deserve this, but I’d like to welcome everyone and say thank you.  My blog is this weird writing/fiction/philosophy/diet/dream blog thingy and more.  I don’t have thousands of followers (I understand some people can artificially manufacture them–the manner they do it escapes me for now), but I watch what it is that gets them there–the ones I am sure are legitimately garnering support.

The huge bloggers all do podcasts, of course, Youtube, etc.  And you must be interesting if not photogenic.  They often have something unique in their backgrounds like they were once famous or semi-famous athletes, doctors with alternative health ideas.  Travel blogs and Youtube creations of travel are wildly popular.  That stands to reason.  Folks love to get first hand information for trip planning.  Podcasts and videos seem to be very popular since as a society we read less.

That’s a real shame.

There is something to the written word–it standing for itself–that leaves things to the imagination–something a video can’t provide.  That’s why I’ve always been attracted to it. But it’s true we are visual creatures more than auditory ones.  Primarily.  So even the written word can hold appeal over audio versions of things–though I understand those can be great for people who drive a lot–great in the car.

At any rate, we haven’t yet abandoned the written word altogether for which I am grateful.  I am considering doing some videos of a few select recipes about the time my cookbook comes out that can be posted.  It will take some planning since I think I’ll enlist my daughter as sous chef.and because doing readings of my literary work was never my favorite part of the process.  But I realize for certain recipes it can really aid a chef.

One of my favorite diet bloggers is Mark Sisson.  I stay mostly carnivore and he’s a primal/paleo/keto type guy mostly.  I enjoy his careful analyses of diets, his takes on criticism of these diet regimens.  He was once an Olympic type athlete.  I like that he doesn’t get political (I’m glad a few are activists).  But I like that Mark is a bright spot in the gloom always.  I love “Sundays with Sisson” particularly.  I like that he will blog on nearly any subject or thoughts he has on the week.  And I have to say that his blogs have made my life better.

I feel this way about lots of bloggers–ones that aren’t as famous as Mark is.  Something often will hit my inbox that brightens my day, provides ballast, rights a listing ship.  A poem, a stray thought, a photograph, a recipe, someone’s random dream journal.  For the most part, these blog posts are like life preservers thrown into a swirling sea as opposed to the drivel that shows up on Facebook.  If one didn’t have to promote one’s work and it wasn’t such a great vehicle for family photos, I suspect everyone would likely get rid of it permanently.  Even if someone writes something political in a blog, it’s carefully considered as if it’s written to a particular writer and friend, not interjected quasi-anonymously into a newsfeed–often with the ludicrous assertion that people shouldn’t dare respond to all this nonsense.

For the life of me, I couldn’t get a link to Mark’s Sunday blog, so here it is this week.  If you like him, you can always subscribe. I’m sure he won’t mind my passing this along. I read his other health articles, but my favorite is just his musings on life. (Well, it didn’t copy as I thought it would and I can’t get rid of it now, so my blog continues a bit after Mark’s thoughts:

This will be a stream of consciousness SWS. Whatever comes to mind, I will write down. No promises that it will focus explicitly on fitness or food or Primal living. I’m writing this from the backseat of a Lyft. The driver has Elvis Presley “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” playing. I approve. This is Elvis at his best, slow crooning. One of the books that hit me hardest as a teen growing up was On the Road by Jack Kerouac. It was the book that got the “Beat Movement” going in the 50s and set the stage for the hippie movement of the 60s. Anyway, if you haven’t read it, it’s all about youth, and trying to find “it,” and then grabbing it by the horns. Jazz, drugs, sex, wine, poetry, love, adventure, the road, constant movement (“go, go, go!”). In later years, Kerouac realized he’d been chasing false promises and had never actually found “it.” He tried Zen Buddhism, playing as a hermit in nature, and fell deeper and deeper into the bottle. He eventually returned to the Catholicism of his childhood but couldn’t kick the booze. Sad story, Jack. Kerouac actually patterned his early writing after the patterns of 50s bebop jazz, flitting from thought to thought and observation to observation, trying to capture the immediacy of life as it’s lived and experienced. That writing really resonated with me as a young guy. Not so much as an older guy—it reads as a real product of its time (and his age). Now it’s Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.” Man, this guy really has quite the playlist. I must have passed at least a half dozen fast food places. I will say that they were pretty sparsely populated. I take that as a good sign. One day I’ll have them using Primal Kitchen Mayo for their secret sauces, or at least making their own avocado oil mayo. I’d take that as a win, too. If folks changed nothing about their diets but the mayo and cooking oil they used we’d make massive inroads in the health situation in this country. Besides, the sorry state of the Standard American Diet means the pie is big enough for everyone to benefit. Okay, I’m at my stop. Before I finish this, I’ve got a task for you. Sometime in the next couple days, perform a spontaneous act of kindness for someone you don’t know. Get creative with it. Pay someone’s bill, buy their coffee, smile and say “nice jacket, man,” offer a $20 bill to someone walking by you, whatever. Actually, do an act of kindness for someone you don’t know and someone you do know. Got a wife, husband, mother, kid, friend? Make them happy. Blow their minds. In the comment section of WLL, let me know what you’re gonna do. Or what you did? Take care, everyone.

There are a few nutty bloggers that exist to shock, vent, or be political.  But not many.

It’s a completely different animal than Facebook.

So I’m grateful for you folks who have bothered to follow me just as I’m grateful for those folks I follow.  Because I know even if we disagree, we have respect for one another.  You’d all be people I’d love to meet.

Happy Sunday, all.  Let me know how life goes on for you.