Recipe swap

Miss Grimke: What's your favorite cheese?

DGF: That's a trick question to which I have the correct answer: goat cheese.

Miss Grimke: How do you prepare goat cheese?

DGF: I prepare goat cheese by going to the Trader Joe's in Cambridge, next to the Microcenter. There's plenty of free parking and Charlie and I like to browse in Microcenter. It's what we consider a date. We like puttering around with electronics. I got one of those digital picture frames. I love it to death!

Miss Grimke: All full up with Matthew Bradys I bet.

DGF: I am not that much of a geek!

Miss Grimke: You consider shopping at Microcenter a date and you are not that much of a geek?

DGF: I thought we were talking about cheese.

Miss Grimke: How do you prepare the cheese after you go to Trader Joe's?

DGF: I take home the cheese. Then I take out my pepper grinder and a sheet of waxed paper. I grind the pepper on the waxed paper, thick and wide. Then I unwrap the goat cheese. It comes in that log shape you know? Then I roll it over the cracked pepper until it is totally covered. I serve it on a nice china plate with fancy crackers and a real sterling silver butter knife.

Miss Grimke: I bet that gets the oohs and aahhs!

DGF: It does. It looks real fancy. I don't do it often though, only for very special guests that are worth the trouble.

Fogg of war

Miss Grimke: I cannot believe you are closing the Fogg until 2013. That is five years. Babies not even conceived this year will be walking and talking, saying their ABCs, counting to 100, potty trained, quoting from Shrek...

DGF: Don't you go all Obama on me!

Miss Grimke: I will not be able to stand it. I love that big picture with all the people in it, and the one with the babies in heaven and all that fruit! And that chalk thing of the storm at sea done by the guy they named Allston for! They all soothe my savage breast!

DGF: Suck it up, Miss Grimke. Go to the Gardner for heaven's sake!

Miss Grimke: I will. I will go to the Gardner, and maybe I will not be back.

Update on Elmwood goats

An unidentified source has informed us that four does and a single buck, all Nubians, have been ordered and are on their way to Elmwood. They need time to get acclimated before breeding season, which usually starts in late August. Kids would be born in February or March and then we'd (we? I am getting caught up in this!) need to wait another 10 months before we could start milking them. Possibly Drew has ordered goats already into their milking cycles. We shall see.
Nubians are the cutest, with floppy ears, but they have very annoying voices. They sound like complaining children. Wonder if Tory Row is really up for this.

Academic Literary Fashion Dish

Miss Grimke: Did you wear the qipao under the gown at Ed Ayers' coronation?
DGF: Inauguration. Induction. Yes, of course Miss Grimke, I wear it everywhere.
Miss Grimke: Do you think Ed is the male DGF?
DGF: In terms of fashion sense I think he is a little more conservative.
Miss Grimke: What did he wear under his gown?
DGF: Jeans and a flannel shirt. He will never outgrow the Huck Finn look.
Miss Grimke: How's this for an SAT question: Ed Ayers is to Tony Horwitz as Drew Faust is to ___.
DGF: Geraldine Brooks.
Miss Grimke: You are brilliant!
DGF: Not really. I just know how your mind works.

Can't you just see her in this?

NEWS FLASH: DGF GOES WILD IN LIGHT GRAY

Yes yes loyal fans, our dear Dr. Faust was photographed in a gray suit on an outing in Korea. Look how she expresses herself with the subtle piping and eccentric cut of the lapels. No man could get away with that, so eat crow all of you who think DGF will not branch away from man-suits. I wonder if those are her mother's pearls? Their pink blush is so sweet and adds just the right feminine touch.

Now for the challenge. Jane Zhu over at qipaobyjane presented Drew with a "custom-made shirt in the traditional Chinese style of the qipao (pronounced chee’ pau), with a mandarin collar, side closure and fabric knot buttons." according to Jane's news release. When I googled Jane before seeing her newsrelease I was a little shocked at the images of sexy ladies in tight silk and thought Good Lord we'll never see Drew in something like that. But no, Jane struck just the right note, found the exact intersection of Drew and qipao. The jacket is "a warm gray Chinese silk satin, lined with soft floral Thai silk and edged in, of course, crimson." Painted on the fabric is a poem in Chinese calligraphy, couplet by Warring States Period poet and philosopher Qu Yuan (340-287 BC), "considered by many to be the father of Chinese Poetry. 路漫漫其修远兮,吾将上下而求索. It roughly translates to “\'the road (truth) is long and arduous, forward and backward shall I seek.' In other words, veritas."

“I came to the poem after much philosophical discussion and inquiring back and forth with learned fathers of friends,” said Zhu in the news release. “I knew that I wanted something very Chinese, but at the same time it had to represent Harvard, and be appropriate for a piece of clothing.”

The news release reports "Faust’s reaction was enthusiastic and warm, 'Isn’t it lovely!' she exclaimed.'I can’t wait to put it on!'”

And speaking for all of us in the fan club: We can't wait to see you in it!