I figured my first post ought to be a doozy, and I think the above alone makes it so. From last summer in my kitchen, this is Jasper White’s recipe for lobster and corn chowder. Chefs sometimes rhapsodise about their final meal. I’m not a chef, but I am a pretty good cook, and that chowder, some corn bread, and Luzianne sweet tea would be my choice. Generally speaking, Julia Child is my hero, but Jasper White is no slouch.
The topics on The Finley Quality Network will be, in no particular order:
- Food, cooking, and baking
- Aviation and space, with a marked emphasis on the Apollo missions
- Samuel Langhorne Clemens, alias Mark Twain
- Some of the photography, paintings, and pencil artwork I’ve done
- Other stuff I like
- What’s wrong with the world
- How to jolly well fix it and other bridges for sale
- &c.
The Finley Quality Network was the Bob & Ray radio comedy team’s fictional network, chief correspondent the slightly intrepid Wally Ballou, who never got his cues quite right. I shall do my best to emulate him.
The reason for the blog? Well, a beloved corner of the interwebs I’ve been inhabiting for several years is closing down this week. It’s a warm, cosy place, with a lot of like-minded people, several of whom have expressed their appreciation of my posts in the few days since the dreaded but not wholly unexpected announcement was made. Though my posting has slowed in recent months due to an increased workload in the office, I will miss it dearly. I’ve written nearly 10,000 posts there and I’m not done speaking my mind, hence the result before you.
The situation is quite sad, but my response to sad things is usually to work right at the source of the sadness and use the noggin to think of something brighter. To that end, I will quote little Jimmy Schwab from a particular Bob & Ray “Mr. Science” sketch:
“Gosh golly willikers, Mr. Science, the whole place is going up!”
This, then, is Mr. Science’s new basement lab. Welcome.
