Tom Keirstead

Mr Bean, a medium haired grey cat draped over his cardboard scratching pad. Head on the floor.

Can this be comfortable? I suppose that’s a silly question for a cat. (An early or very late) Happy Caturday!

Redcurrant and raspberry fool in a blue bowl

Celebrating the season! A redcurrant and raspberry fool, with fruit from the local farmers market.

And here’s the finished product—just in time for the cocktail hour

Should be okay as long as you wash it down with five gallons of polyethylene glycol. No seeds in the bread though

Oops. Should have said “I spent most of the afternoon watching gin drip from the still”

Ingredients to make a Canada Day gin: spruce tips, Labrador tea, birch bark, juniper berries and coriander seeds

Gin dripping from my Air Still

A gin for Canada Day! With spruce tips, Labrador tea, as well as the usual ingredients. Should have had a Saskatoon berry, too, but I had to settle for a Canadian cranberry instead. Of course this meant that I spent most of the afternoon gin drip from the still. It is as exciting as it sounds.

Devastating news and a complete betrayal of the idea that IU was a place where students could learn about the world. Bloomington took area studies seriously long before most other US universities, and it still boasts that it teaches more languages than any university in the US.

Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.

So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...

2013 was the 60th anniversary of the end of the War for the Liberation of the Fatherland (祖国解放戦争), a.k.a. The Korean War

I’m sure that something like this is what Trump really wanted. Coming soon to the Kennedy center? Pyongyang, 2013.

Here’s some similarly old tanks, from the guys who know how to put on a military parade. Pyongyang, 2013

The angel Gabriel tells Joseph to get to Bethlehem asap. From the York mystery plays 2025 at the university of Toronto

Herod, in a blue suit with an overly long red tie, orders the slaughter of the innocents. From the York mystery plays 2025 at the University of Toronto

From the York mystery plays being performed at the University of Toronto today (they’ll be on until midnight so there’s time to catch a play—or thirty). Gabriel telling Joseph to head to Bethlehem, and Herod ordering the slaughter of the innocents. The overly long red tie seems a nice touch.

A dinner for spring! An asparagus frittata with fiddleheads and rhubarb-strawberry galettes for dessert.

Very tired grey cat on cardboard scratch pads

In the very very tiring month of may—Mr Bean doesn’t even notice that his head’s falling off

A gray cat (medium hair) stares intently at a glitter ball hiding under a step stool

The same grey cat, pouncing on the glitter ball

How to warm up when it feels like -10 (Celsius) outside. All it takes is a glitter ball and a step stool.

Celebrating spring in Toronto with a couple of centimeters of snow and ice

Celebrating Spring in Toronto with snow and ice in front of Robarts Library on the university of Toronto campus

Celebrating Spring in Toronto! By burying the crocuses, which have just begun to blossom, in icy mush.

Tom Conlan has an article about wet nurses in heian and kamakura. I think it was in HJAS around 2005ish.

A donabe, Japanese earthenware pot. Round, with lid, rather like a Dutch oven. Grey, chrysanthemum design

Nabeyaki udon: udon noodles cooked in a clay pot. Garnished with slices of fried tofu, kamaboko, shrimp tempura, shiitake, two eggs poached in the broth, and some dandelion greens

Tonight’s dinner: nabeyaki udon, to break in my new donabe

AAS Statement in Support of Transgender Rights - Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies strongly condemns any act targeting transgender students, among the most vulnerable members of American society. Even as the Association holds its Annual Conference i...

Glad to see this statement from @asianstudies.org. They could have simply said nothing, but they actively chose to issue this statement. Sometimes even just such a gesture of support can mean a lot.

www.asianstudies.org/aas-statemen...

The Canadian men’s hockey team, celebrating the subjugation of the proposed Southern territory in the Four Nations Face-Off. The team is arranged left-to-right across the photo. Shot taken from the rear.

O Canada. From yesterday’s Globe and Mail.

Mr Bean wishes you a carefree #caturday!

Spa day?

A grey cat standing on his toes looking into a wardrobe

An open wardrobe door needs a cat to investigate

Tenjoname, or ceiling pickerel, a yōkai responsible for the stains, mold and mildew found on ceilings

This week’s #yokai from my class: tenjōname 天井嘗, or ceiling licker. CL began as a literary joke in one of Toriyama Sekien’s encyclopedias of yōkai (1780s)—there’s an allusion in the text to Essays in Idleness—then made its way into folklore as an explanation for the stains found on ceilings

Those bookworms were real artists. The page edges are gorgeous

Man wearing a Godzilla T-shirt

Suited up for the first day of class in Japanese Monsters.

Of course there’s a typo: osechi, not oseshi (at least I caught autocorrect’s suggested Sochi)

Osechi bento, a traditional Japanese new year’s box of special dishes

Had our toshikoshi soba a few hours early. Accompanied by the beautiful oseshi bento from Toronto’s best fish store (and sushiya, imo), Affinity Fish.

The cookbook Sift by Nicola Lamb

A loaf of milk bread. Recipe from Sift.

Milk bread cut open

Working on the basics with the help of a Christmas gift from @drbibliomane.bsky.social. My first tanzhong and milk bread.

I don’t know. They’re usually at least half wrapped when you bake them