That's a wrap

The wrap is a mainstay in our house. I usually do them with chicken or ground beef or turkey, cheddar and feta cheese, pinto beans, rice, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, mild and hot salsa, sour cream, and often, guacamole. BG likes cheddar, mild salsa, sour cream, guacamole and lettuce; OG likes meat, cheddar and tomatoes; Worldwide tends toward meat, feta and salsa; and I like the whole enchilada. The variety, as well as the self-directed assembly, ensures that everyone is reasonably happy with the meal, whether vegetarian, carnivore or other. I often make flour tortillas from scratch, which are remarkably easy to prepare, and also freeze well. The OG and I included our recipe in her 2nd Grade class cookbook; basically, flour, oil, water and salt. Knead briefly, divide into balls, roll into tortillas and bake, grill or fry.

These factors also make the wrap an ideal party meal, and, when I was asked to manage lunch for 30 as part of G-Lo’s 80th birthday weekend festivities, Worldwide and I decided to go Mexican. Since it was a special occasion, we opted for carnitas, slow cooked pork, pulled and covered with spicy tomato sauce, along with homemade salsa, guacamole, and a corn and black bean salad. It was easy to assemble the bulk of this menu in advance on Thursday and Friday. I reheated the meat and made the guacamole on Saturday at the party (although I had premixed everything but the avocadoes). For dessert, we served an assortment of small popsicles from locopops, a Chapel Hill small business, of which the most popular were the Mexican chocolate and the pomegranate tangerine. The seller who helped me select the assortment asserted that Green Tea was the most popular flavour, but our data did not confirm this hypothesis.

We used store bought flour and multigrain tortillas to make it easier, and the feedback was positive enough that I decided to share the recipe, which comes from America’s Test Kitchen (carnitas) and Rachel Ray (guacamole). For the party, I quintupled the quantities, and we took back a little guacamole, a bit of meat and a lot of corn salad, which I think was mistakenly interpreted by the guests as a condiment, rather than a side dish (a role it can also capably play).

Guacamole
Mix juice of one lime, 2 pinches of salt, ¼ cup sour cream, 2 chipotles in adobo, chopped, and the flesh of 2 ripe avocadoes.

Carnitas
Trim 2 lbs pork butt of excess fat and cut into 1 inch cubes. Add to pot, along with one quartered onion, 3 smashed cloves of garlic, 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, 1 tsp salt. Add water to cover.

Bring to simmer and cook, partially covered, over medium-low heat until pork is tender, 75-90 minutes. Drain pork, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid. Discard onion, garlic and thyme.

Return pork to pot and shred, using a potato masher. It should easily come apart.

Heat 2 tbs olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add shredded pork, 1 chopped onion and ½ tsp dried oregano and cook, stirring often, until pork is browned and crisp, 7-10 minutes.

Stir in one 14.5 can of tomato sauce, 1 tbs of ground chipotle powder, reserved cooking liquid and two bay leaves. Simmer until almost all of the liquid has evaporated, about 5-7 minutes. Discard bay leaves and add salt, if necessary.






Serve alongside warm tortillas, with fresh cilantro, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, cheddar or mild feta cheese (which we like better than queso fresco), and fresh salsa.

Economist Takeaway

Stephen Harper’s government is pushing to get tar-sands oil to market. If the US doesn’t want a new pipeline, Canada has ports too.

Using games to gauge the potential of new hires. I’ve lately begun to question the utility of the interview.

Making computer memory from bacteria. Is “biotechnology” the next big thing?

The Barnes Collection reopens.

Special Report on China’s economy: The main issues are internal. Highlights:

• Investment and consumption make up most of China’s GDP. Exports are not a significant factor, which surprised me. 
• China is now the world’s largest market for luxury goods. 
• Party elites should be worrying about how to increase economic groeth, rather than how to divide it amongst themselves. Shades of Russia? 
• Chinese income per person ranks 90th in the world. I would have guessed higher.

Extreme Yard Work

Facebook friends may recall my encounter with a copperhead a couple of weeks ago. The snake was relaxing in a pile of leaves that I had raked up previously, and decided that he preferred to remain in the yard rather than be turned into mulch by the excellent Orange County Recycling service.

I have seen the snakes many times over the last couple of years—in the yard, on the road, on the Bolin Creek bike trail, and on some of the footpaths that connect are sub-optimally designed neighbourhood. They are such a part of life that I decided that it might not be a bad thing to be bit by one, just to know what to expect, and to add it to my list of experiences. So while I have not been seeking out the pit viper, I have been doing my weeding aggressively of late.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, a man who we had hired to power wash our deck, as he was surveying the site to give me an estimate, pointed out a spider on one of the wood beams of our screened in porch: “Is that a black widow?” he asked. I mean, to me that was like asking if one of the gallinaceous interlopers from the neighbours’ coops scratching in our yard was a bird of paradise. I assumed that the black widow was a deadly spider, probably found down there in South America with all those other weird species.

Turns out they are common in this area. My neighbour reports seeing them frequently in his wood pile. I had just added the spider to my list of things-I-want-to-get-bit-by when I came across this article, detailing what actually happens.

I may need to revise my plan, as the consequences seem to outweigh the benefits of being able to speak knowledgeably about the subject.

Economist Takeaway

The demise of the public company. Could Facebook be the last big IPO? And the recent distinctions between voting/non-voting shares seem to matter, from a collectivist, share-the-wealth perspective.

Africa is experiencing some of the biggest drops in childmortality ever seen, anywhere. Economic growth and bednets seem to be the major contributors.

Our once-favourite airline, Makedonski Avio transport is bankrupt, and has been for some time (haven’t flown them in awhile); and the other Balkan carriers are next.

Having children makes men happier. No news there.

Special report on the future of banking. Highlights:

• The Internet has not eliminated retail banking, as many predicted, but it has made it much more convenient. I am rarely inside an open bank.
•  Basic retail banking accounts for more than half of banks’ revenue worldwide.
•  For big retail banks, renting, operating and staffing branches accounts for 40-60% of operating costs. Computer systems make up the rest.
• Expect banks of the future to look more like Apple stores
• Citigroup has hired Watson, of Jeopardy fame, to crunch its data. They know everything.
• The term “Riding Shotgun” comes from the banks' habit of sending an armed escort to ride alongside the stagecoach driver to keep an eye on the strongbox used to transfer money between branches. 

D Smooth

Sometime last year, I decided that I should eat fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I think it was a book or an article lauding the nutritional value of yogurt--or maybe it was decrying carbohydrates—but for whatever reason, I abandoned my twenty year relationship with Raisin Bran.

The problem with fruit and yogurt was that it just wasn’t sweet enough, and I found myself adding a spoonful of jam to the mix. The other problem was that the change to my daily regimen yielded no benefits to weight loss or well being, despite the imposition of a modest gustatory cost.

So I decided to try smoothies, which have essentially the exact same ingredients, but have the added benefit of being a pleasure to consume. Shortly thereafter, the BG, when ordering her afterschool snack—which we often discuss on the way to the bus stop in the morning—or her bedtime beverage—which we enjoy as we sit down to NBA basketball most evenings—began asking regularly if a smoothie option were available. And my regular readers will no doubt recall that the Lunch of a Lifetime included one.

So now I make them almost every day, a blenderfull for my breakfast, Worldwide’s post-walk refresher, and either an afterschool snack or late night beverage for the BG. Over the last few months I have learned a few things about the process that I think worthy of sharing.

Frozen Fruit is Better

Some time when you have a few minutes, I encourage you to look carefully at the frozen section of your local supermarket. It is an Aladdin’s Cave of interesting items (who buys that?) and intriguing possibilities. In addition to the smoothie ingredients (more on that below) we all like ice cream (each family member is entitled to a pint or a box of novelties of their choosing per week); the OG likes soft pretzels (a regular part of her packed school lunch); the BG likes Morningstar veggie dogs, burgers, sausage links and bacon (yes, that’s right, vegetarian bacon. It looks and tastes kind of like the real thing, although, in my heart of hearts, I fear that the health consequences of the science required to create a vegetarian version of cured pork bellies are not yet fully appreciated); and I like frozen peas and chopped spinach, which help make it easy to complete pasta dishes, stir fries and curries.

On the fruit side, in addition to expediting the smoothie making process (no mangoes to peel and core), the gelid state makes for a better consistency and a perfect temperature. If I am using fresh fruit, I’ll throw in a few ice cubes to approximate the process. Alton Brown suggests putting your fresh fruit in the freezer the night before, but I just don’t have the wherewithal for that level of preparation.

Trader Joe’s has the best prices on frozen fruit, although Harris Teeter has four ounce packs of fruit purees (peach, strawberry, mango, pineapple, acai) from Brazil, and yesterday, while I was looking for hibiscus flowers at the local Mexican grocery store (I walked over during the 45 minutes between dropping the BG and her homeboys (the next door neighbours have two boys a year older and younger than she) at Tae Kwan Do and then driving them home) I found 14 ounce packages of frozen pureed papaya, mango, pineapple and guava at half the price of the Brazilian competitor. This is part of the reason why today’s recipe features the wonderfully fragrant, though disappointing guava, which we used to see all the time in the Maadi fruit markets on Road 9.

Add the liquids first to chop the fruit more easily

It’s counterintuitive, but it works. I start with the liquid (usually fruit juice), then add the yogurt, and then the solids. Run the blender for about 30 seconds on low speed, then 30 seconds on medium, and then a minute on high. You’ll know things are blending nicely, when you can see a little whirlpool at the top of the blender sucking stuff down to the bottom. Sometimes, if the mixture isn’t blending well, it’s because an air pocket is interfering. In this case, stop the blender, take off the lid, and wait for your baby to burp (remember those days?) Then finish the blending.

Sweeten the Pot

 Worldwide likes her beverages a little sweeter than the BG and I, but even a sourpuss like me will sometimes need a little added sweetener. I generally use a tablespoon or two of honey, although, because the sugar ants will swarm to a sticky lid, and can even somehow squeeze their way into sealed jars, we keep our honey in the fridge, which makes it a little hard to pour. For this reason, I ordered some powdered honey from Amazon (it has the consistency of confectioners’ sugar).

Recipe Tips

The recipe below just sounded good to me this morning, and I was pleased with the results. The red berry smoothies have been the most popular, as well as the berry/peach and berry/mango blends. Blueberries, kiwis, bananas, papaya, watermelon, cherries and peaches don’t seem to be capable of standing alone, although they add nuance. The BG likes the all-fruit editions, and Worldwide likes the consistency that a ripe banana adds to the mix. I just like experimenting, which makes it hard to have a favourite. My choices this morning were guava, papaya and peach purees, frozen blueberries, mango chunks, raspberries and a berry medley (raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries), a product which we have found to be a fantastic addition to our weekend favourite buttermilk pancakes (but that’s another post). I also had bottles of orange and cranberry juice in the fridge, as well as  ”Mixed Berry” juice boxes (a 100% juice blend of apple, grape and berry juices). I chose the juice box, as, for some reason, its per unit cost is the lowest. Plus it’s the perfect size.

I measured fairly carefully this morning, since I had plans to blog about it later; usually I just do it by eye, knowing that I can add stuff at the end if the consistency or sweetness is not optimal. I also meant to use one of the first South Carolina peaches of the season, which had gotten a little overripe and needed to be cut up, but I forgot. Still, you can see the utilitarianism of such a plan.

Raspberry Guava Smoothie

Pour one mixed berry juice box (6.75 ounces) into the blender. Add 1 cup of plain yogurt, 1 cup of frozen raspberries, 1 cup of guava puree, 1 scant tbs of honey powder. Blend 30 seconds on low speed, then another 30 on medium speed, listening for the sound of the blender working on the fruit). Blend an additional one minute on high speed. Taste and add liquid, yogurt or sweetener as appropriate. Serve.

Why Nations Fail, Part Deux

Review of Why Nations Fail by the always interesting Jared Diamond. In addition to good governance, geography matters too; it’s particularly hard to be a tropical, land-locked country:

Europe has had up to four thousand years’ experience of government, complex institutions, and growing national identities, compared to a few centuries or less for all of sub-Saharan Africa. Europe has glaciated fertile soils, reliable summer rainfall, and few tropical diseases; tropical Africa has unglaciated and extensively infertile soils, less reliable rainfall, and many tropical diseases. Within Europe, Britain had the further advantages of being an island rarely at risk from foreign armies, and of fronting on the Atlantic Ocean, which became open after 1492 to overseas trade.

He reckons that inclusive institutions (participatory democracies that share the wealth) account for 50% of nations’ successes. I think it’s great that smart people are looking closely at these issues, and that life seems to be getting better for almost everyone. 

This book, as well as Guns, Germs and Steel, is part of my 2012 reading list. Both highly recommended.

Sunday Papers

Does Facebook turn us into narcissists? Apparently not, although I don’t think its dark side is fully understood yet, and that it may have already seen its finest hour. As my circle of friends grows, my usage has diminished.

More candidates for next week’s presidential election in Egypt; a Mubarak crony and a Nasserite.  Worldwide is optimistic, me, not so much. What can go wrong with the army running it and an undercurrent of religious fervor?

Austerity does not seem like the way to get the economy moving, but politicians and voters have no appetite for spending. Can’t we find a metaphor that we can all rally behind? If I could print money that the Chinese were happy to take in exchange for consumer goods I might not have to watch household spending so closely.

The social significance of Magic Johnson. Bigger than you might think. Supported Hillary over Obama in 2008. Doesn’t say much. But his accomplishments are myriad and laudable.

Garrison Keillor on travel. I always enjoy his writing but cannot abide his radio show.  I wonder why that is.

Economist Takeaway

People love doomsday scenarios, but it’s hard to see how a slowmotion bank run and a populist government bode well for Greece and the Euro. Cheaper holiday rentals perhaps?

Quinoa production is booming in Bolivia and Peru. Not surprising when it’s $7 for a small bag at Whole Foods. It’s tasty though.

Google is booming in Africa. People love the idea of using maps—which had heretofore in many cases been closely guarded military secrets—to help find their way.

Cadillac tries to break in to the Chinese market. I can’t remember the last time I saw one on the road here.

Apparently, Mauritius is India’s Cayman Islands, from afinancial standpoint. Port Louis is the capital, if you’re playing at home.

Birdland Hall of Fame

One of the many nice things about our peripatetic life has been the discovery of new birds, not exotic to the locals, but hitherto (thitherto?) unknown to us. If I had to pick the top three such birds of the last decade, I think they would be the Bufflehead (Olympia), the Hoopoe (Cairo) and the Carolina Wren (Triangle).

Bufflehead

We used to see these distinctive sea ducks all over the Puget Sound, but particularly on Cooper Point, near the OG’s pre-school. It was fun to watch their frenetic diving, and they hold a special place in the family lore, as Worldwide helped the OG’s class make paper maché buffleheads for the only-in-Olympia Procession of the Species Parade. In fact, as part of the never-ending clean-up, G-Lo returned a somewhat worse-for-wear head to us when she was here for Alice last month. It has, ahem, gone on to “nourish the life of significant soil,” but the memory lives on.

Hoopoe

These dramatically colored, crowned and billed birds were everywhere in Egypt, picking over the grass in search of insects. In four years, I never got tired of watching them.

Carolina Wren

These little guys are extremely common around our house. They don’t visit the feeder that much, as they prefer insects in leaf litter or tree trunks, all of which we have in abundance. They also have the charming habit of wandering on to our screened porch every so often, and taking a couple of hours to find the hole by the screen door that they came in through.

What sealed their place in the ornithological pantheon was a discovery that I made this morning. There is a fair amount of noisemaking in the early daylight hours, including a loud repetitive call so distinctive that I’ve often scanned the area trying to determine its source. Well today, I was out on the porch waiting for a phone call when I heard the familiar sound. I spotted the singer on a fencepost near the compost bin and grabbed the binoculars for a closer look. It was the selfsame bird.

Not trusting my eyes, and unable to believe that such a small fry (sparrow size) could be so loud, I rummaged around to find our Petersen’s guide. One of my favourite things about  the invaluable reference is its onamonapoetic rendering of bird calls, which I’ve often thought of as one of the best writer jobs ever. Turning to the Carolina Wren entry, I found the following: “Voice: A clear 3-syllabled chant. Tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea. “  Yep. That’s it. Remarkable bird; not as dramatic as the others, but nonetheless worthy of an encomium. Sort of like Chapel Hill.

Hemingway in Hogtown

I can vaguely remember an ad in the Toronto Star from the 1980s. “Write sports for the Star. Ernest Hemingway did.” I’m not sure if it was seeking sportswriters or merely a bit of self-promotion, informing readers that if the past was any indication, today’s chroniclers of yet another Leafs’ collapse, or the salad days of the new baseball team, just might go on to join the ranks of the world’s greatest novelists.

It turns out that Hemingway wrote 191 columns for the paper in the 1920s, filing dispatches from Toronto, Chicago and across Europe. Today, via the Browser I came across his column from 1923, “Bullfighting is not a sport—It’s a Tragedy:

It is a good deal like Grand Opera for the really great matadors except they run the chance of being killed every time they cannot hit high C.

This is of particular interest, given the many times Hemingway would go on to write about bullfighting, most notably in Death in theAfternoon. In a 1932 review of the book, the New York Times asserted that Hemingway saw over 1,500 bulls killed before the book was published.

A good thing, I suppose, that his editor didn’t assign him to cover the Leafs, although at the time, then known as the St. Patricks, they were the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Sunday Papers

Not a lot caught my eye this morning:

Caps lose another Game 7. Fun to watch though.

Should a perfect game count from an era where it took eightballs to get a walk, foul balls caught on one bounce counted as outs, and thepitcher stood fifty feet from the plate and could not throw the ball above abatter’s waist?

More on the charter city plan for Honduras. No mention of the Canadians' involvement, which I blogged about last week..

What’s up with all this brain research? The death of free will? And the author of The Invisible Gorilla says that Jonah Lehrer's Imagine plays things a little fast and loose with the science 

The Anchor Effect

Earlier this year, the town of Chapel Hill was agonizing over what to do with its library. The building, located in a wooded area not far from where I live, needed expanding, and the city planners were considering two options; an expansion of the current facility, and a move into space at University Mall, an aging shopping center from the salad days of the indoor mall.

The latter proposal—to move into the spot currently occupied by Dillard’s, a department store whose remaining clients were slowly replacing their shopping patterns with permanent rest—was less expensive, and promised the possibility of providing an anchor that might attract more traffic for the struggling merchants, many of whom, such as the beloved small toy store (which moved to a cheaper location last year), were having a hard time making a go of it, as evidenced by the several unoccupied sites. With a theater company, a DMV office and a kids’ gymnastics facility, the mall was already turning away from retail; less by choice than circumstance, but with nearby Target and Wal-Mart, as well as a newer mall and the end of retail, the future did not look promising.

Well, our municipal leaders decided to expand the current facility, preferring, as politicians usually do, the incremental, risk averse move to the bolder change. But during the time of renovation, the library moved to temporary quarters at the selfsame mall—a little cramped, but functional for the time being.

I haven’t seen any traffic data since the move, and the mall hasn’t seemed busier when I’ve visited (although this article suggests that it has), but I have been the poster boy for the proponents of the permanent move. I visit the library about once a week, and in the past month have done (and enjoyed) the following activities as part of my library visit, none of which I would have gone uniquely to the mall for:

• Shopped for kitchen gadgets and exotic foodstuffs at Southern Season
• Searched for hand sanitizer that smells like birthday cake at Bath and Body Works
• Had lunch at the new Village Burgers
• Picked up pizza at Alfredo’s while the OG was at a nearby dance class.

That’s just a sample, but it’s easy to see how attractive this model might be. Indeed, if the OG’s dance studio were onsite, I’d invariably stick around after dropping her off, and this would have network effects as more people did the same. There’s bus service and an abundance of parking as well.

It is nearsighted to just hope that the mall will rebound. It might happen, but I doubt anyone would bet on it with their own money. Faced with the very real possibility of a giant crater in the middle of the community, I think the city missed out on a real opportunity.

Economist Takeaway

Every week, it's something different.

More people are choosing not to vaccinate their children. As numbers grow, so does the risk of their  losing “herd immunity.” The case for this behavior is very weak, especially as the spectre of the return of some really awful diseases increases.

Remember the Orange Revolution? Eight years later, Ukrainelooks more like Byelorussia than Belgium.

In a year, Japan has reduced the share of its power generated from nuclear reactors from 30% to zero. Yep. Zero. Where will the monsters come from now?

People are driving 20% less now compared to the 1970s. Blame the Internet and women working. I have never driven more in my life than I do in my current situation, with a reluctant student who is also an aspiring piano player/dancer/actress.

DNA from hard to find species can be found in leeches, which are, um, much easier to find.

Song of the Day

Listening to the Coverville James Brown show on Saturday (It was disappointing. I think James may be one of those inimitable artists who can’t really be covered), I got an idea for Song of the Day. I wasn’t able to use it on Monday, as the BG woke up before reveille, but I held onto it for this morning. Listening to the actual song (Say it Loud, I’m Black and Proud) I see that my lyrics hewed closer to the metrics of Superbad, but the acappella rendition went off well this morning.

  

I got this feelin’. I don’t know from where.

I got this feelin. Think I wanna go upstairs.

I go on up, and into Evie’s room.

Stand right beside her, break off a little funky tune:

Say it Loud! Wake up right now!

Say it Loud! Wake up right now!

Quick and easy pasta supper

My boy Tyler Cowen says that, in terms of diet, the two most environmentally responsible things we can do are to eat less meat and make fewer trips to the grocery store in our car. Having lived with a vegetarian for the last two years, the first of these is particularly resonant in our house. With regard to the second, I do try to keep a supply of staples like nuts, grains, cheese, frozen vegetables and the like around—as well as a fully stocked spice rack—so that there is always a meal to be had from available stocks.

This recipe is a family staple. It comes together quickly, and the noodles can be served plain for the OG. I make it once a month, and the quick pasta in a pan technique, in addition to providing the starch infused water that holds the sauce together—means only one dish to clean. I made it last night, substituting gorgonzola and chevre for the blue cheese, and pecans for the toasted walnuts. I toast the nuts at 300 degrees for five minutes in the toaster oven, but you can also do it in a small dry skillet at medium heat. When they smell nutty, they’re done. We like spaghetti, penne and bowties in our house, and, although America’s Test Kitchen suggests that spaghetti is the better shape for this type of sauce, sometimes it’s more important to just go with whatever seems like the most fun at the time.

Pasta with blue cheese, spinach and toasted walnuts

Cover 1 package pasta with an inch of water and a couple of pinches of salt in a large saucepan. Boil vigorously, stirring occasionally, 8-10 minutes, until pasta is cooked. Drain, reserving ½ cup of cooking water. Add 3 tbs olive oil, two handfuls of chopped spinach leaves, 4 ounces crumbled blue cheese, handful of toasted walnut pieces and reserved cooking water to saucepan.  Sprinkle with a pinch or two of red pepper flakes, according to taste. Toss a bit, until spinach is wilted. Serve

Sunday Papers

RIP Adam Yauch.  I think he does his best work on the underrated “To the 5 Boroughs. Not their best, but he shines. Can't find a copy of the original video (which he directed as Nathaniel Hornblower) but this appearance on Letterman is pretty cool.

Bill Clinton reviews the latest volume of the Johnson biography. Did not know LBJ was 6’4.”

Tyler Cowen on India. Things are slowing down. Bureaucracy is a serious impediment to progress.

Still waiting on nanotechnology, but it looks awfully cool. Can’t wait to charge my phone by plugging it into my jeans.

Victor Hugo spent 15 years in exile on Guernsey as an enemy of Napoleon III. Looks like it’s not a bad place to write in peace

Tunnel Bar-B-Q

In high school we used to frequent the famous Tunnel Bar-B-Q in Windsor. Rumor was that Lions star Billy Sims (who, as it turns out, is now the owner of a chain of Oklahoma barbecue places) used to eat there all the time, although we never saw him (and he was unmistakable with that haircut). 

The best thing about the TBQ—besides the late hours—was the sauce, a spicy tomato-based condiment with a hint of sweetness. My friend Anne used to slather it on toasted tomato sandwiches in our poor student days in Toronto, and I loved it on French fries.

I took Worldwide there during a Michigan trip about ten years ago, and after we had exhausted the two jars I bought in the gift shop, I wondered if I might be able to find the recipe on the Internet. There were a few attempts, but the recipe below seems a pretty good approximation of the real thing, and it strikes me as exactly the kind of thing that a Greek Canadian might have come up with in 1941.  

I’ve been making it regularly over the last decade. I’m going to use it on some barbecued chicken legs tonight. Give it a try, and let me know what you think—especially my Rose City readers.

TBQ Sauce

Mix

1/2 cup Ketchup
1/2 cup prepared mustard
1/2 cup vinegar white
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
1 1/2 teaspoon chile powder 

1/4 cup white sugar

Economist Takeaway

South Korea may soon be richer than Japan. Perhaps I would have benefited from a more careful reexamination of Gung Ho before investing in the Japanese economy back in 1997.

A war between Sudan and South Sudan over oil seems like the worst possible scenario for improvements to prosperity in both nations. The resource curse and civil war are two of the keys to remaining in the Bottom Billion. And the South is also land-locked.

Twenty years in to the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web, we still haven’t figured out how to preserve data. Could we be living in another Dark Ages without realizing it?

Remittances are worth more than development aid. I did not realize Russia was such a popular destination for immigrants; but it makes sense, given the price of oil and the legacy of the former USSR.

Speaking of oil, all of those surplus dollars out there aren’t in China. They’re in the Gulf.

Ode to Shaq

Speaking of basketball, I'm sorry to see that Shaq, who everyone thought would be great on tv, is turning out to be more like the opposite of good:

As you know, the worst signing of the 2011-12 season wasn't Kwame Brown, Caron Butler or Nene … it was Shaquille O'Neal. Maybe it wasn't shocking that someone who mumbled his way through interviews for 20 years and rarely said anything interesting would negatively impact the best studio show in the history of sports television, but this will become a major problem in the playoffs when everyone just wants to hear Chuck and Kenny. Can TNT use these next two weeks to teach Shaq to basically do a lot of nodding? We don't need him to be Chris Bosh, we need him to be Joel Anthony. Just sit there and smile, Shaq. Let the other guys do their thing.

This morning I heard DJ Static celebrate finding a copy of the obscure 90s Fu Schnickens' "Ode to Shaquille." My younger readers might not be aware of the Big Man's foray into hip hop in the early 1990s, but let's just say it should have been seen by TNT as a harbinger of how he'd do in the analyst's chair. Just like what Bill Simmons recommends he do with Charles and Kenny, watch Shaq sit back and let his more skilled collaborators carry the load.

Playoff Predictions

We filled out our brackets for the NBA playoffs this morning. Our timing, which was a couple of games late, allowed us to factor into our calculations the impact of Derek Rose's injury, as well as the fact that the reigning champions seem to have lost even the vestigial remnants of their mojo.

In talking about this last week, the OG and I discussed the word schadenfreude in the context of people actively willing Lebron's failure, and that they now seem to feel like he's paid enough. Is there an opposite of the word? Gladenfreude? Perhaps that's why we all picked the Heat to win.

The BG's love of Dwight Howard has been unaffected by the yearlong soap opera in Orlando, but she knows all too well that the Magic can only aspire to mediocrity without him. Both Gs foresee a Heat Thunder finals, while I, ever mindful of the advance of time, think that the Spurs have a little something left.

Injuries have obviously played a major role in the NBA this season, and there are never as many upsets in a seven game series as there are in a one-and-done contest like the NCAA tournament, but we're still looking forward to a couple of months of exciting basketball, as well as the lottery and the draft.

Canada steps up

In an Op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail, Paul Romer, acknowledging the principle that “the primary roadblock to prosperity in the developing world [is] weak governance” lays out a new agreement between the governments of Canada and Honduras to go forward with his proposal for “charter cities,” laying plans to build a city in Honduras that will be governed by Canadian laws and institutions. The project

offers a new way to think about development assistance, one that, like trade, relies on mutually beneficial exchange rather than charity. It’s an effort to build on the success of existing special zones based around the export-processing maquila industry. These zones have expanded employment in areas such as garments and textiles,  … but they haven’t brought the improved legal protections needed to attract higher-skilled jobs. By setting up the rule of law, the RED can open up new opportunities for Canadian firms to expand manufacturing operations and invest in urban infrastructure.

By participating in RED governance, Canada can make the new city a more attractive place for would-be residents and investors. It can help immediately by appointing a representative to a commission that has the power to ensure that RED leadership remains transparent and accountable. It also can assist by training police officers.

As someone who has experienced firsthand the difficulties of improving discrete institutions in an environment that is wholly foreign and largely dysfunctional, I am intrigued by this idea, and impressed that the government of Honduras is willing to cede some degree of sovereignty in order to provide more opportunities for its citizens.

Using the examples set by experiments like Hong Kong and Singapore, without the more unfortunate aspects of colonialism, the idea seems very promising, and I will be watching it closely. It offers the possibility of greater “buy-in” from the Hondurans, who, like our forebears, can move to the new city in search of economic opportunity. In a way, it is like emigrating to Canada without leaving Honduras, and it is not hard to envision a future in which the Race for Africa or the voyages to North and South America are repeated, but at the request of natives trying to make a better life for themselves and their children. And it also offers Canadian firms an opportunity for reduced labor and organizational costs in a more stable and predictable framework.

Nothing is certain, but the idea is definitely worth exploring.