by Nigel Scotchmer | Feb 24, 2025 | Recipes
The Last Cry of the Parsnips The original Beef Parsnip Parsnips, before the advent of cane sugar from the Caribbean in the 18th century, were used as a sweetener. Parsnips were so valuable Emperor Tiberius permitted Germania to provide parsnips as tribute starting in...
by Nigel Scotchmer | Oct 29, 2024 | Essays
The blind need a helping hand, but a disability can be a gift A maidenhair tree, or ginkgo biloba A recent article in the Spectator[1]...
by Nigel Scotchmer | Oct 19, 2024 | Ramblings
“Meet me at the gate to Yu Garden” – Anonymous My neighbour across the street ran the ‘Maple Leaf Express’, one of the exit routes from Hong Kong when the British returned it to China in 1997. He regaled with me stories of incompetent Canadian government officials...
by Nigel Scotchmer | Oct 12, 2024 | Essays
We need more humor. It is hard keeping paper money dry when you live in the water. That is why I always kept my lari¹ in coins. Coins don’t get soggy. I think that is why American sturgeons switched to credit cards and then many got themselves into so problems with...
by Nigel Scotchmer | Oct 3, 2024 | Essays
Sometimes we feel as though “they” (companies, lobbyists, governments,) are trying to frighten us, to make us feel as though we are in danger, implying that the world is about to end. The purpose of this would be to make us feel as though we need them, which would...