For more information about Norman Borlaug and his incredible life, see the NY Times article marking his death, read this Reason interview, or just type his name into Google!

Got a twitter account (https://twitter.com/cesutherla) finally.  Probably I will only use this when traveling.

Pictures on this blog and here: http://cesutherland.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=39458

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Ahhhh I love him.

Anyway, I imediately found this:  http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2390304162, a Facebook app for Gallery2.  Here are the results:

Original Gallery2 gallery: http://cesutherland.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=12010

Facebook Imported gallery: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2777189&id=9332525

The import takes photos, titles, summaries, and descriptions (all optional) as well as gives you the option for including a link-back.  That was the kicker for me.

Again, it literally took me longer to put these sentences together than it did to research, implement, and exploit this solution.  One downside, the Gallery2 component leaves a web accessible API into your gallery allowing read access to galleries and images – worth considering.

Kiss of the Spider Woman tells the story of two very different cell mates, Molina and Valentín.  Molina is a city dwelling effeminate homosexual who dresses windows for a living while Valentín is a student and member of an anti-goverment revloutionary group.  Molina is imprisoned on the charge of “corruption of a minor” and Valentín is a political prisoner.  Throughout the course of the novel the two characters become close, forming a relationship that will in one sense destroy them, and in another save them.

Manuel Puig tells this story without a narrator, instead relying entirely on the dialog of the characters.  Several devices enrich this storytelling, including the characters’ own stories.  Molina has a great love of film and frequently relates one or another of his favorite movies to Valentín.  Another device is the generous use of footnotes offereing psychoanalytic theory of homosexuality.  Manuel successfully creates a very unique storytelling environment which lends itself well to the plot.  The novel as a whole has a very deep parallel sturcture immediately evident in the contrast between the two main characters.  Other contrasts presented include those between social norms vs. social fringes, complacency vs. non-complacency.

Although primarily an author, Manuel Puig had worked in television and radio and his writing style, particulary in Kiss of the Spider Woman, incorporates elements of these media.  The novel, written while Puig was in exile, has since been made into a play, a musical and a film.  In novel form, I found it entertaining and insightful, and found the social commentary useful.

Ingredients:

• 4 small to medium ripe avocados
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 to 1/2 cups sugar, depending on taste
• 1 cup cubed mango
• 1 cup cubed pineapple
• 1 cup segmented grapefruit
• Vanilla custard.

Prepare your favorite vanilla custard recipe in advance.

Stir sugar into milk, until dissolved.  Peel and seed avocados into a medium bowl with a flat bottom.  Mash the avocados until the consistency of guacamole – I use a potato masher for this but anything blunt should do.  Using your masher, mash 1/3 of the milk mixture at a time into the avocados until all the milk is mixed in.  Chill 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Serve in a bowl in layers – mixed fruit on the bottom, custard in the middle, and avocado on top.

Should be eaten the same day (the avocado will oxidize, like cut apples).