Erik Eckel

Copy Editor Edits Memo Eliminating Copy Editing Role

2009-11-08T12:08:00.002-05:00

Certainly, it seems like a story out of NBC's hit series, The Office, but it's not. This is true life irony: Toronto Star management had copy editors edit a memo eliminating the copy editor position. Worth checking out. A picture's worth a thousands words.

Callard & Bowser Licorice Fans Rejoice

2009-10-21T19:22:00.002-04:00

Fans of Callard & Bowser's (now discontinued) Licorice Toffee can celebrate. Your search is over. Oatfield (an Irish chocolate and confectionary manufacturer) makes a black licorice candy just as good as the Callard & Bowser original.

Groovy Candies, Licorice International and other sites are among the vendors selling these licorice toffee treats by the pound. If you liked the original Callard & Bowser black licorice toffees, you'll love the Oatfield variety.

Tough Cards Season Calls For Calm

2009-10-18T14:21:00.004-04:00

The 2009 football season is essentially over for the Louisville Cardinals. That's disappointing, especially considering this team has more talent than its woeful, anemic record attests. Just yesterday the Cards gave up some 400+ yards to a struggling UConn team. That's unfortunate, especially as the defense has proven porous all year. Worse, the offense (once a juggernaut and the supposed strength of Coach Kragthorpe) can't generate success against even weak opponents.

Ultimately, underperformance comes down to coaching. Coach K inherited a program in disarray. There's no debating that issue. But the program should be performing better than it is by now, and the time for explanations and rebuilding is past.

With football subsidizing so many other university athletic programs, and with a new football stadium construction project to fund (and additional seats to fill), the time for change has come. But let's be civil, and respectful, as the process unfolds. Coach K has given much to the university and the program.

Dreams of a Jon Gruden or Jeff Jagodzinski taking over the Loiusville program are misplaced. Gruden's won a Super Bowl. He can pick his next NFL job. I'd be very surprised if he even considered a demotion to the ranks of college football, no less a Big East school. As for Jagodzinski, he lost his job at Boston College because he interviewed with the New York Jets. We don't need Bobby Petrino 2.0, in which our head coach interviews for an NFL job every year.

Let's relax. Have some faith in Athletic Director Tom Jurich. The process will play out. We'll be OK.

I Like Kragthorpe

2009-09-20T11:25:00.008-04:00

I know bad. I'm a lifelong Cincinnati Bengals fan. So trust me on this.

Steve Kragthorpe is not bad. He's outstanding. C'mon Louisville, let's show some intelligence, fortitude and foresight. Stick with this man.

Following a tight loss to arch rival Kentucky, there will be many calling for Coach K to move on. That is a mistake.

The Louisville team, left in shambles following coach Bobby Petrino's ill-advised Faustian dalliance, is showing resolve. The team is playing spirited football. Better yet, the offense isn't dependent upon a handful of weapons (quarterback Justin Burke completed 15 passes to six different receivers for 245 passing yards).

Sure, the Cards have dropped three straight games to the Wildcats. But the Wildcats are enjoying the success that comes from building a program properly. Kentucky endured difficult seasons while Coach Rick Brooks rebuilt the program (decimated itself by the previous administration's mismanagement).

Louisville, whether you wish to admit it or not, has had to deal with the ramifications of its previous coach's annual lust for other coaching positions. Analysts, too, agree Petrino's recruiting classes failed to materialize.

Those are not Kragthorpe's sins. The man is rebuilding the program. Give him time.

Any knowledgeable sports fan knows a game is not won or lost as the result of a single play. That's why the Bengals last-second loss last week wasn't the fault of blown coverage on a single play. It was the culmination of a series of failures (inability to convert third downs, passing a field goal snap over the holder's head, etc.) that spelled doom that day.

The same is true of Trent Guy's fumbling of a punt return attempt late in yesterday's game. When asked about it, Kragthorpe became animated. "Don't say a word about Trent Guy because that guy's a stud."

Coach Kragthorpe has his player's backs. Now it's time we cover Coach K's back.

Why Mechanics Are Artists

2009-09-20T10:07:00.010-04:00

It's no secret many people feel good mechanics are like artists. I've always felt that to be true, especially when it comes to my own computer troubleshooting and repair efforts. Now, thanks to my book club having selected Matthew Crawford's Shop Class As Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into The Value of Work as it's next read, I know why.

Crawford quotes English philosopher Iris Murdoch as describing good art as seeming mysterious "because it resists the easy patterns of the fantasy." Explained differently, Murdoch writes "Good art shows us how difficult it is to be objective by showing us how differently the world looks to an objective vision."

This is where the word idiot comes from.

In Greek, Crawford writes, idios means private. Rather than serving a public role, in which an individual gets outside him or herself to grasp a public role, "which entails, or should, a relationship of active concern to others," an idiot is not involved. Crawford argues the point, specifically in this case, using an example from Robert Pirsig's wonderful Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Crawford continues, stating, "But getting outside her own head is the task the artist sets herself, and this is the mechanic's task, too. Both, if they are good, use their imagination 'not to escape the world but to join it, and this exhilarates us because of the distance between our ordinary dulled consciousness and an apprehension of the real.' This is the exhilaration the mechanic gets when he finds the underlying cause of some problem."

To be a good mechanic, Crawford concludes, one must possess attentive openness and constantly be open to the possibility that they are mistaken. It's kind of counterintuitive, but I believe he's spot on.

"I've got to knock it to the ground"

2009-09-14T20:52:00.009-04:00

So says Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Leon Hall.

You think?

You be the judge.

I'm embarrassed to have been at that game, to have been a witness to such futility and to be a fan of such inane, decades-long incompetence.

Beware Child Monitoring Software

2009-09-07T17:45:00.005-04:00

Boing Boing today lists a story I originally saw break on other sites earlier this holiday weekend. Web monitoring software designed to help protect children is actually collecting information from children's chat sessions and selling it to market research companies.

Sentry and FamilySafe are the two brands at the center of the storm. Parent company EchoMetrix developed a data-mining tool called Pulse to help businesses better tap into the data its software collects. Using that data, marketers could explore the mindsets of children and youth, presumably to aid marketing efforts. For example, the Web monitoring software captures communications from public and private chat sessions to help determine how teens feel about movies, games and other trends.

This is one more reason to avoid software-based Web filtering and monitoring applications. Other reasons are: they're expensive, they rob system resources and slow performance, they cause incompatibilities with other programs and they're easily circumvented.

Better solutions are hardware- or network-based. While not every home can reasonably implement a business-class content-filtering router, Open DNS offers everyone a simple, free service that can block most children's access to inappropriate material. For more information, visit Open DNS on the Web.

E*Trade Ads

2009-09-05T16:11:00.009-04:00

In honor of my opening an online stock trading account, I give you this:

No, I don't know where I've been...

Avoiding College Coaches Gone Wild

2009-08-30T12:24:00.010-04:00

After a bitter and acrimonious exit from West Virginia, coach Rich Rodriguez oversaw the worst season in recent memory in Ann Arbor. The Michigan Wolverines managed to win only three games last year, a feat essentially unheard of in modern recorded history.

Fans hoping for improvement and a return to normalcy will apparently have to continue waiting. Multiple players allege Rodriguez and staff regularly violate NCAA rules governing the amount of time student athletes may dedicate to their sports.

If true, that's unacceptable.

Ethics, apparently, are optional in college athletics. No one's perfect. That's understood. But Kelvin Sampson, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Billie Gillispie, Andy Kennedy and numerous others are among those having experienced recent trouble.

That's why I don't understand a bumper sticker I saw Friday evening. Fire Kragthorpe, it read.

Such sentiments are short sighted. I'd much rather build long-term success properly within a program, such as Steve Kragthorpe is attempting here in Louisville, than broker some Faustian pact that brings but temporary success at great cost (as was experienced with Louisville's previous football administration). Make no mistake, if Kragthorpe's detractors succeed in running him off prematurely, as surely they are trying, he'll proceed to build a successful program somewhere else. Let's hope that doesn't happen, as we have a great opportunity to build long-term success here, something not even the Michigans of the world are always capable of managing.

Michael Rubens' The Sheriff of Yrnameer

2009-08-29T21:40:00.009-04:00

Every few years I discover a new novel of which I know nothing. Often these titles are authored by writers with whom I'm unfamiliar, too. Occasionally, these works prove intriguing, sufficiently so that I make an impulse buy.

Michael Rubens' The Sheriff of Yrnameer is one such book. I found it on the new fiction table at Barnes & Noble last week. There's but one review printed on the jacket. Stephen Colbert writes, "a science fiction book your grandmother will love--if she's a lustful, violent lady."

That's all I needed. I sat down with a copy on a nearby bench and began reading. I was reminded, almost instantly, of the old school (at least to me) science fiction my brother encouraged me to read in the early '80s. We're talking great stuff, works by Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams and even Philip Jose Farmer.

I couldn't be happier. I certainly recommend Rubens' new novel, especially if you like science fiction similar to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Venus on the Half Shell and Player Piano. While I haven't yet finished the novel, I'm finding it entertaining, creative and just the right amount irreverent.

Three Reasons The Bengals Will Struggle In '09

2009-08-23T13:00:00.005-04:00

Call me skeptical, but I'm concerned the Cincinnati Bengals administration and players have lost focus. That's disturbing, especially considering the three previous decades of futility. Other NFL teams (the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles minus the Vick fiasco and Kansas City Chiefs) have made great strides recruiting new talent and fine-tuning operations.

The Bengals?

First, the Bengals exhausted their franchise tag selecting Shane Graham. Graham's a good guy and an outstanding kicker. Don't get me wrong. Kickers and special teams are critical to a team's success. But wasting the franchise tag on a kicker is unusual, to say the least, and unwise, considering the number of offensive and defensive holes the team possesses. After all, you're talking about a franchise that reportedly couldn't even land Vick for more money than the Eagles offered.

Second, the Bengals are horsing around. In this week's preseason game, the stupidity hit a new level. Wide receiver Ocho Cinco (formerly known as Chad Johnson) was tasked with kicking the PAT (and I say THE PAT because the Bengals only managed a single TD). So here you have the ailing eight-year veteran kicker on whom you spent your franchise tag unable to kick a simple extra point and what do you do? You send a legitimate franchise-tag quality player out to risk injury (hamstring pull, torn ACL, whatever) for a senseless PAT in a meaningless game. I don't get it.

Third, this morning I read a headline that QB Carson Palmer's brother (also a team QB) is excited about this year's season. I think that's good. Why's he excited? Jordan Palmer (who I would have hoped spent his summer studying the playbook, working out, strengthening and conditioning his body, etc.) dedicated his time to developing an Apple iPhone application. The purpose? To profile Ocho Cinco photos, thoughts and other crap.

Maybe I'm dejected after so many years of failure, but these don't seem harbingers of greatness.

George Mann's Affinity Bridge Follow Up

2009-08-16T09:42:00.003-04:00

After reading the numerous glowing reviews adorning this book's dust jacket, I looked forward to enjoying the new so-called steampunk novel. No sooner was I a chapter or two into reading this book that I stopped to check the reviews on Amazon. Immediately I confirmed others were noting the same concerns as was I: additional editing wouldn't hurt. Some sections run rough, a few passages would benefit from refinement and a few phrases and themes are repeated a little too often (enough with "organizing" the "Earl Grey" tea, "finding purchase" when grasping desperately for an item in one of the too frequent and often exaggerated superhuman fights, dense debilitating fog always at the perfect moment, etc.).

Based on the dust jacket reviews, I was expecting something sensational. I love it when a novel arrests my attention and prompts me to think in new and creative ways, such as was my experience when reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, Douglas Coupland's Microserfs, William Gibson's Neuromancer, or Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. I did not have that experience with this book. But then again, that's a tall order.

All that said, Mann develops an interesting story. The characters have some depth. I found myself sticking with the plot, which made the impulse purchase worthwhile. But to enjoy this book I had to set critical thoughts aside and just read the novel as one would a library book at the beach. I chose to let myself just be entertained. In other words, by lowering my expectations (which, it should be noted were set by the lofty recommendations found on the book's jacket), I was able to enjoy Mann's story.

It's clear Mann is setting up a detective series, of which The Affinity Bridge is to be the initial work. The characters show promise, and properly developed, Newbury and Hobbes' future exploits will be worth reading. I just hope a little additional care is taken in preparing future installments before they're released to the printer.

Abandoning Flickr for Facebook?

2009-07-31T21:21:00.002-04:00

Despite many attempts, I've had trouble talking family and friends into springing for Flickr Pro accounts. Most all are now posting regular updates and photos to Facebook, which has me thinking. Why should I renew my Flickr Pro account? Most everyone I know is using Facebook now, and Facebook's photo features are free. That said, I'm letting my Flickr Pro account expire. I'll begin posting photos to Facebook, instead. Anyone else doing the same?

Sampling Some Steampunk

2009-07-25T17:57:00.004-04:00

I just finished up a couple very good books, completing my 22nd book of the year this morning. Read while the rain pounded the skylight off our bedroom; a glorious Saturday morning.

I needed something new. I've only got one other book (Isaacson's biography of Einstein) going. I considered 10 or 12 novels. I settled upon George Mann's The Affinity Bridge. I chose it for three reasons. One, it's a TOR title, and they've published several of the last science fiction books I've read that I've really enjoyed. Two, I was in the mood for a good steampunk/cyberpunk novel. Three, the story was very different from what I've been reading.

After knocking out the first couple chapters, I found myself thinking some of the writing stilted. Almost clumsy. So I gave a look at the Amazon reviews. Not good. I just dumped $26 on this hard back, and I'm afraid it's going to suck. I should have read the Amazon reviews first. Lesson learned.

That said, I'll keep going. Maybe it'll get better.

I almost bought Neal Stephenson's The Big U. I hope I don't regret passing it up.

"Up" Is Kind Of A Downer

2009-06-14T12:11:00.016-04:00

Pixar's latest film "Up" is a downer. Any time other patrons are openly weeping it's a sign the film is tilting toward the depressing side. I was disappointed.

I'm not alone, as can be witnessed here, here, here and here.

Most problematic, for me, was my mistaken belief "Up" was a movie for children. At the time, I didn't realize the film was rated PG, so that's my fault. But, I had help. The trailers heavily promoted the fun, daring and quirky expedition theme involving Carl and Russell, the two main characters whose friendship must span a 70-year gap. But the trailers gave no hint to the movie's dark interconnected themes of loss, failed dreams, bitter righteousness and evil so sinister and blinding as to corrupt an intelligent, respected but apparently egoist adventurer.

The movie's lessons and animation are outstanding, as is typical for Pixar. But like the studio's early Red's Dream short, it's reminscent of an admitted Blue period.

Disney and Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lassiter has famously joked that Red's Dream was popular in Europe. No doubt, "Up" is likely to prove successful overseas, too, as it deserves to in the states as well. But make no mistake, Pixar's latest film is no lighthearted tale of friendship and expedition. Like with Wall-E, Pixar's creative team is intent on presenting complex life lessons, some of which are already all to real to many adults.

Sad News For Pontiac Fans

2009-04-28T20:14:00.006-04:00

By now everyone's heard GM is moving to kill the Pontiac brand. Car and Driver has a nice take, in case you want more history and details.

Whether it was GM mismanagement, changes in world markets or just plain lack of interest, the brand had been slipping for years. Pontiac's failure certainly isn't a sudden event, nor should anyone feign surprise. The division has been struggling too long. But it wasn't the economy that ended the Pontiac line. Any such claims are an excuse.

Ultimately, it may be a case of too little too late. The new Solstice was a nice-looking car with sweet lines that deservingly won awards. The Vibe was a quality compact supplied by Toyota as part of a joint venture in Fremont, California. So the company deserves credit for trying.

But there were too many Aztecs (one of Time Magazine's 50 Worst Cars of All Time) and too many Montanas, which lasted only a handful of years. And where were the F bodies, abandoned after 2002 (answer: Pontiac execs chose to focus on more profitable SUVs, instead, even though that flew in the face of the brand's rich history, character and personality)?

When Pontiac killed the Grand Prix (last year), I knew that was it. This is especially true because I debated purchasing an '08 model. But with the options I wanted, I would have had to pay $30K or so. For a Pontiac that would depreciate 35% (approximately) when I drove it off the lot? It didn't add up.

Regardless of the cause, it's a sad event. I grew up with Pontiacs. My dad and grandmother owned Grand Prixs and Trans Ams (complete with screaming chicken decal), respectively. Friends owned LeMans, Firebirds, Grand Ams and Bonnevilles. I remember lazy summer days as a kid scrubbing my old man's Grand Prix whitewalls and cleaning the maddening spoke wheels. So, too, do I remember the bark of the massive 6.6-liter that powered the late 70s Firebirds with the gaudy brushed-aluminum dashboards.

Those days are gone, though. And so, now, is Pontiac.

Booklist

2009-04-26T15:53:00.003-04:00

I've been working too much to pay much attention to the Reds (they appear to be holding steady at .500) or the Bengals (leveraged the draft to stock up on linemen, which is fine and good).

I've been able to knock off a couple books, though. I finally finished Undaunted Courage, the mammoth book on Lewis and Jefferson by Ambrose. I recommend it, definitely.

I also finished Orson Scott Card's Shadow Puppets and Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.

Shadow Puppets was OK, but I've found myself losing interest in the whole Ender saga. I guess a couple books was enough but four was too many, maybe, for me.

I found Outliers interesting, but most any undergraduate could easily invest hours debunking some of its methods and conclusions. That said, some breezy pop nonweighty nonfiction is needed every now and then.

Just Finished Anathem

2009-03-29T11:49:00.006-04:00

After several months of on again, off again reading, I've completed Neal Stephenson's Anathem. At 900+ pages, I'm glad I stuck with it.

I'm not sure how much I liked it, though. I believe, as one reviewer mentions on Slashdot, the novel was way too long. I suspect (and I base this thought on years of professional editing experience) the book could have been cut by some 300 or 400 pages.

But that's to be expected, anymore, with Stephenson. His "Baroque Cycle" spanned three volumes. Cryptonimicon, too, required stamina, courage and willpower.

While Anathem has great characters and a compelling story line, I felt at times as if I were plowing through an assignment. Passages required dedication, focus and commitment I often associate with reading Proust. That's asking too much of today's science fiction reader, I fear.

Still, there were rewarding moments. Here are my top quotes from the book, all of which will stick with me (and plan to see these showcased within the movie trailer if the motion picture rights are ever sold):

Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor.

And...

Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways.

Then there was this anticorporate nugget, as well:

So I looked with fascination at those people in their mobes, and tried to fathom what it would be like. Thousands of years ago, the work that people did had been broken down into jobs that were the same every day, in organizations where people were interchangeable parts. All of the story had been bled out of their lives. That was how it had to be; it was how you got a productive economy. But it would be easy to see a will at work behind this: not exactly an evil will, but a selfish will. The people who'd made the system thus were jealous, not of money and not of power but of story. If their employees came home at day's end with interesting stories to tell, it meant that something had gone wrong: a blackout, a strike, a spree killing. The Powers That Be would not suffer others to be in stories of their own unless they were fake stories that had been made up to motivate them.

Now it's on to Wallace's Infinite Jest. Out of the frying pan into the fryer, I suspect.

DiskInternals Denies Its Own Guarantee!

2009-03-14T11:22:00.006-04:00

Check this out.

Bought a piece of software after the evaluation version said it would recover lost files. Note the clearly worded guarantee "If you can preview images, you are guaranteed to be able to recover it."

When the software failed to recover the displayed file, I called the company's fulfillment provider to request a refund (as instructed on the DiskInternals' Web site). The company I reached at the number DiskInternals said to call told me it doesn't manage issues with this product. OK.

So I contacted the company's support technicians and customer service staff. Here's what they told me (keep in mind the clearly posted guarantee from the above screenshot of the company's software):

"The product was guaranteed to recover files for which thumbnail images displayed." Where did you see that? There is no such guarantee.

Precious stuff. I'll have my credit card company dispute the charge on Monday. No big deal. But I post it here so other technicians and computer users will know of the DiskInternals experience I had.

Cards Win Big East Title!

2009-03-08T10:14:00.003-04:00

Following losses to Western Kentucky, Minnesota and UNLV, I didn't think this year's Louisville basketball team would reach its lofty potential.

I'd told several friends that, if the Cardinals did play to their abilities, they were scary good. But then came disheartening losses to mediocre teams, which left me believing this would be yet another year of "oh, so close."

I need to have more faith. The Cardinals, despite a few rough patches, managed to win the Big East college title, no simple feat, seeing the Big East conference is almost unanimously viewed as the toughest, most competitive division in NCAA Men's Basketball this year.

Now the real stress begins. March Madness assumes a whole new meaning of importance when a team plays as well as this group is capable of playing.

Best of all? It takes pressure off Coach Kragthorpe's efforts to rebuild the struggling football program. That's just what he needs, as I continue believing he's the right guy for the job.

Go Cards!

Shoemaker's Children: Prepare For New Shoes

2009-02-13T23:32:00.005-05:00

It's often said the shoemaker's children have no shoes. The phenomenon was proving true for me, so I finally took action.

My main office systems are over four years old. As most all statistics reveal, the costs of supporting a PC beyond four years exceeds the expense of a new computer.

So, the antiquated Sony Vaio Pentium 4 3.2GHz CPU (with an incredible -- at least for the day when it was bought -- 2MB of L2 cache, 1GB of RAM and 100GB hard disk) will be relegated to test system duty, exclusively. In its place will sit a Dell Vostro. Powered by a simple but fast Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0GHz CPU (with 6MB of L2 cache and a 1,333MHz FSB) and 4GB of RAM, I've spec'd the new box out with two disks (one for backup) and a terabyte of storage (to house the dozens of disk images and ISOs I keep on hand for clients).

Next I'll replace my aging laptop. If it didn't get so beat up in the field, I'd be tempted to order an Apple Mac Book Pro. Due to the extensive usage (and subsequent beating) the laptop experiences each day, though, I may opt for a MacBook. But that'll have to wait for another day (the old G4 is still plenty fast).

Notes On My Hometown

2009-02-04T20:50:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I came across an Internet photograph of a historic building in my hometown. Incidentally, I grew up across the street from the house in that photo.

Since then, I've spent some time searching out other items of interest regarding Perrysburg, Ohio.

Here's a nifty one: Perrysburg is one of only two cities in the United States planned by the federal government. Care to guess the other?

The Reading List

2009-02-03T21:18:00.006-05:00

I almost started reading Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow tonight. But I've been working on Neal Stephenson's Anathem for awhile, and I guess I should stick with it. I like it well enough, but as a work of experimental fiction, it sometimes requires a little effort.

I'm also halfway through Steal This Computer Book 4.0. And Jack Wallen's passed me his copy of Battle Royale, which looks very intriguing. My brain's tired, though, and I'm not sure I could keep the characters straight tonight.

Oh well.

So far this year I've only read two books: Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief (it was OK, but no comparison to Microserfs) and an abridged version of Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage. I so enjoyed Undaunted Courage (the story of Lewis and Clark) that I'm now working on the complete book (19 CDs) in the car.

Some 13 texts currently sit on my on-deck bookshelf. Highlights include Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, Isaacson's Einstein, McCullough's Mornings on Horseback and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.

John Updike, 3.18.1932 - 1.27.2009

2009-01-27T13:55:00.008-05:00

We have lost a brilliant author whose insight, writing and thought are unmatched by contemporaries. John Updike has passed away. He was 76.

If you haven't read the Rabbit series, I recommend you do. Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit At Rest are incredible, outstanding, thought-provoking works that captured American small town life and middle class angst better than any other material I've encountered. That said, these novels are not for the young or especially sensitive or easily offended.

The series, now available in a single Everyman's Library text, displays tremendous insight into the human condition, as English majors so often say. Even the late Rabbit Remembered, which wrapped up the entire epic, proved worth reading.

Updike's observations of a couple whose husband had read Proust's entire In Search Of Lost Time series prompted me to begin reading all of the renowned but lengthy classic. I still remember Updike's commentary in which the wife's Proustian commitment was questioned due to her having read only Swann's Way, the first volume of the seven-work set.

If an artist is ever awarded a national holiday, this man's work, legacy and spirit should be among the very first recognized.

Pad See Ew

2009-01-21T19:04:00.005-05:00

I've long been a fan of Pad See Ew, an outstanding Thai noodle dish that's often made with a black bean sauce. Here's the best recipe I've come up with, yet.

Ingredients:
4 Teaspoons regular soy sauce
6 Tablespoons mushroom flavored soy sauce
4 Teaspoons sugar
1 Tablespoon black bean sauce
4 Cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Block tofu, cubed
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
16 Ounces (2 cups) broccoli florets
8 Ounces dried wide rice sticks (or 1 pound chow fun noodles)
1 Chicken breast, cubed
Canola oil

Directions:
1. Boil water for cooking rice sticks. Cook rice sticks (noodles) and drain in colander. Rub in some canola oil to prevent sticking and set noodles aside.
2. Lightly whip 2 eggs and set aside.
3. Create sauce by combining soy sauce, mushroom flavored soy sauce, sugar, one clove minced garlic and black bean sauce. Stir until sugar is dissolved and set aside.
4. Add 2 tablespoons canola oil to wok and place on high heat. When oil begins smoking, add broccoli florets and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Set broccoli aside.
5. Add 2 tablespoons canola oil to wok and return to high heat. Add tofu and 1 clove minced garlic. Stir fry 3-4 minutes (until tofu browns). Set tofu aside.
6. Add 2 tablespoons canola oil to wok and return to high heat. Add cubed chicken and 1 clove minced garlic. Stir fry 3-4 minutes. Set chicken aside.
7. Drizzle egg into wok and cook over high heat (approximately 1-2 minutes). Scramble egg in wok, then add to wok noodles, broccoli, chicken and tofu.
8. Add sauce and stir frequently, mixing all items together.