Saturday Morning Links

Photo by Tom Vining on Unsplash

1. That’s Mount Aso, or a road near Mount Aso, which is the largest active volcano in Japan. Mount Aso is in Southern Japan, and the caldera, which is surrounds the peak is actually quite large, 25 kilometers by 18 kilometers. And Mount Aso is part of the Aso Kuju National Park.

2. Know what a “cockentrice” is? Me neither, but I’ve found out. Thanks to Roads & Kingdoms, I’ve found out that a Cockentrice is the head of a pig, the body of a capon, which is a castrated rooster, and the tail of something that I’m not sure what it is.

With the head of a pig, the body of a capon (a castrated rooster) and a tail of goodness-knows-what, a Cockentrice was certainly that. This unlikely combination of fine dining and rogue taxidermy originated in the English cookbooks of the 14th Century, and was roasted as the centerpiece of kingly banquets, delivered to the dining hall like some slain mythical creature amid fire and song. There was, though, only one place in London where I was sure that all of the beast’s constituent parts could be found.

There’s no way that I’m taking the picture of the cockentrice so you’ll need to click on over to see this thing. And the story from R&K is more about the Smithfield Market than anything else.

3. I’ve loved watching Guy Fieri since the pandemic started. I really started watching Fieri for his Diners, Drive-In’s, and Dives, but at some point, I got hooked on Guy’s Grocery Games. It is ridiculous to think this is something that makes me happy, but Guy’s empathy, silliness, and general happiness is the draw. I don’t know that I’ve really seen him cook very much at all, but since the pandemic started, you know what the rest of the world is catching up on, which is that Guy is a good dude. 121 Minutes with Guy Fieri from Grub Street.

4. As a family, we watched “Soul” last weekend and the boys really enjoyed it. I think I liked it too, but the movie sparked a discussion about whether or not it was good. With that being said, I thought The Ringer’s Scott Tobias on the director of Soul, Pete Docter.

And so the revelation for Joe, and for us, after discovering how the entire mechanism of life and death operates, is that your dream, should you be lucky enough to achieve it, will soon turn into a job. To believe that performing every night with the Dorothea Williams Quartet will lead to some deeper sense of fulfillment and purpose is a trap that’s taken Joe his entire life (and death) to fall into, much like the open manhole he steps in. Even if Soul is working toward better news about life’s truer and more omnipresent gifts, it’s a sobering point for dream-chasers of all ages, especially in the context of a happy-making Pixar animated movie. And it’s aimed at adults, at least as much as it’s aimed at children.

5. Via Metafilter, scientists are studying a radio wave they received from the Proxima Centauri, which is the nearest star to the sun. the radio waves were picked up in New South Wales, Australia. Lots of links that are interesting there. Kind of love stuff like this.