By JESSE KORNBLUTH
It’s undeniable now. No matter how rotten the news, no matter how concerned we are about [INSERT TOPIC HERE], our sad planet has jettisoned its drab winter colors and is awash with life-affirming color. And we respond.
This weekend, I’m thinking of the Allegri “Miserere,” a choral piece so beautiful a 17th century Pope kept it for himself, allowing it to be played in Rome only during Easter week.. Then Mozart, age 12, came to Rome, heard it once and transcribed it. Please read the Butler review. And then please listen to the Tallis Scholars sing it. It’s easily the most soul affirming 12 minutes of my week. May it be part of the soundtrack of your weekend.
THE BEAUTY PART
I knew nothing about the recently departed Michael Roberts, a multi-genre genius best known for his New Yorker covers. This charming profile in The New Yorker includes a collection of his covers that made this reader laugh out loud.
IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
Meet Clarence Thomas. A stunner from ProPublica.
BUMMER HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: “MODERATE DRINKING HAS NO HEALTH BENEFIT”
from The NY Times:
For decades, scientific studies suggested moderate drinking was better for most people’s health than not drinking at all, and could even help them live longer.
A new analysis of more than 40 years of research has concluded that many of those studies were flawed and that the opposite is true.
The review found that the risks of dying prematurely increase significantly for women once they drink 25 grams of alcohol a day,which is less than two standard cocktails containing 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, two 12-ounce beers or two 5-ounce glasses of wine. The risks to men increase significantly at 45 grams of alcohol a day, or just over three drinks.
YOUNG LEONARD COHEN DEFINES “STATE OF GRACE”
The interviewer is baffled. Watch.
WEEKEND MUSIC
THE WEEKEND POEM
Seamus Heaney, “Digging”
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade.&
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.
THE HOLIDAY MEAL: EASTER LAMB
from Bistro Cooking.
GIGOT ROTI AU GRATIN DE MONSIEUR HENRY
(Roast Lamb with Monsieur Henry’s Potato, Onion and Tomato Gratin)
serves 8-10
6 garlic cloves (1 clove peeled and split, the rest peeled and chopped)
1 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and sliced very thin
2 large onions, peeled and sliced very thin
5 medium tomatoes, cored and sliced very thin
1 leg of lamb, bone-in (6-7 pounds)
2/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
l tablespoon fresh thyme salt, pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Rub the bottom of a large (16 x 10 x 2) oval porcelain gratin dish (or casserole dish) with the split clove of garlic.
Arrange the potatoes in a single layer, season with salt, pepper, some of the thyme and some of the chopped garlic.
Layer the sliced onions on top, season as you did the potatoes.
Layer the tomatoes on top of the onions. Season with salt, pepper, the rest of the thyme and chopped garlic.
Pour on the white wine, then the olive oil.
Trim the thicker portions of fat from the lamb, season with salt and pepper. Set a cake or oven rack on (or in) the gratin dish and set the lamb on the rack so its juices will drip into the gratin.
Roast, uncovered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes for rare lamb (for medium lamb, roast for 15-30 more minutes). Turn the lamb every 15 minutes, basting with liquid from the gratin dish.
Remove the pan from oven and let the lamb sit for 15 minutes before carving.
Serve the thinly sliced lamb on warmed dinner plates, with the gratin alongside. Vegetable suggestion: Green or French beans.
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This post was previously published on headbutler.com.
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Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com
The post Weekend Butler: Spring (The Rising!) Bummer: Liquor’s Not Healthy, Not Even a Little. Breaking News: Clarence Thomas. Glenn Gould. Seamus Heaney. And (I Didn’t Forget) Holiday Lamb. appeared first on The Good Men Project.