1 1/2 pounds fresh cod fillets (choose thick ones)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 cup water

1 extra-large egg

Vegetable oil, for frying

1 recipe Baked “Chips”, recipe follows

Lay the cod fillets on a cutting board. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Cut the fillets in 1 1/2 by 3-inch pieces.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, lemon zest, cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Whisk in 1/2 cup of water and then the egg.

Pour 1/2-inch of oil into a large (12-inch) frying pan and heat it to about 360 degrees F.

Dip each fillet into the batter, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl. Place it very carefully into the hot oil. Don’t crowd the pieces. Adjust the heat as needed to keep the oil between 360 and 400 degrees F. Cook the fish on each side for 2 to 3 minutes, until lightly browned and cooked through. Remove to a plate lined with a paper towel. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the “chips.”

Baked “Chips”

2 large baking potatoes, unpeeled

2 tablespoons good olive oil

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/3 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Scrub the potatoes, cut them in half lengthwise, then cut each half in thirds lengthwise. You’ll have 6 long wedges from each potato. Place the potatoes on a sheet pan with the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary. With clean hands, toss all the ingredients together, making sure the potatoes are covered with oil. Spread the potatoes in a single layer with 1 cut side down.

Bake the potatoes for 30 to 35 minutes, turning to the other cut side after 20 minutes. Bake until they are lightly browned, crisp outside, and tender inside. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.

Yield: 2 servings

*16/702/13*

From David Bowie and Beastie Boys to eBay’s Meg Whitman and YouTube co-founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, winners at Tuesday night’s 11th Annual Webby Awards proved once again that less is more with a speedy procession of the awards’ trademark five-word speeches.

Unlike most awards ceremonies, The Webby Awards limits speeches to just five words, a rule that is only slightly relaxed for special achievement honorees like Bowie.

“I only get five words?” Bowie asked. He continued: “Sh*t, that was five. Four more there. That’s three,” concluding: “Two,” before exiting the stage.

*17/702/13*

It started with the second season of Top Chef and has progressed to two other shows – by accident, really. Note: Sara Mair is going down! Why would they vote off Joey in favor of this passive aggressive jerk? Bad decision.

I stumbled upon the show VH1’s “Rock of Love” one day while flipping through the endless array of un-watchable cable shows. Believe it or not – it was the only thing worth watching. The ridiculousness of the show was what drew us in. We questioned aloud whether or not the people on this show were actually from this planet. They seemed so serious about their – ummm, goal? I missed the intro so I wasn’t sure exactly what it was supposed to be. The premise of the show is basically – fifteen women vie for Bret Michael’s (Former lead singer of the 80’s band Poison) affections. They live at his house and take turns talking with him. I think they actually are supposed to end up with him in the end? (True Love) It is so dumb that I am having trouble explaining it. The groupie-like women on the show have apparently divided themselves into the bad girls and good girls…I don’t see the difference – but, hey, that’s me. They spend each episode bickering until one of them is asked to leave. Try watching it and tell me what you think. J and I are waiting for Bret Michael’s to reveal his hairline. What’s up with the bandanas and hats, dude? hehe….hiding something?

The second show, “The Two Coreys” airs on A&E is about two 80’s childhood stars Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. Feldman is the family-man-working-actor and Haim is the unemployed-sloppy-single-nonworking-actor. Both have a history of drug abuse (Haim suffering the most) and the show is a stagey look at their attempt to revamp their careers. The antagonist in the show is Feldman’s wife and believes me – she is very unlikable. At this point, I am rooting for Haim. I want this guy to be able to make a living at acting. Who hasn’t messed up and why shouldn’t he be given a chance to redeem himself? The show isn’t bad – a notch up from Rock of Love but I am biased (due to a childhood crush on Haim). Note: To whoever is making a straight-to-video sequel to “The Lost Boys” – Two Words: BAD IDEA.

I can’t believe we have been sucked into the Reality Show black hole…I rationalize it by thinking – at least I am not falling for “Dancing with the Stars” or “American Idol.” Now THAT is shit.

[Rock of Love photo courtesy of VH1 and Two Coreys courtesy of A&E]

*20/702/13*

•The greatest source of misery and hatred in this world is clinging to past hurts. Look at all the terrorists and militant groups that hark back to some event long gone, or base their justification for killing on claims of some supposed historical right to a bit of land, or redress for a wrong done hundreds of years ago.

•Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever. One of the greatest advantages anyone can have is the willingness to make a fool of themselves publicly and often. There’s no better way to learn and develop. Heck, it’s fun too.

•Following the latest fashion, in work or in life, is spiritual and intellectual suicide. You can be a cheap imitation of the ideal of the moment; or you can be a unique individual. The choice is yours. Religion isn’t the opiate of the masses, fashion is.

•If people complain that you’re too fond of going your own way and aren’t fitting in, you must be on the right track. Who wants to live life as a herd animal? The guys in power don’t want you to fit in for your own sake; they want you to stop causing them problems and follow their orders. You can’t have the freedom to be yourself and meekly fit in at the same time.

•If you make your work your life, you’re making your life into hard work. Like most people, I confused myself by looking at people like artists and musicians whose life’s “work” fills their time. That isn’t work. It’s who they are. Unless you have some overwhelming passion that also happens to allow you to earn a living doing it, always remember that work should be a means to an end: living an enjoyable life. Spend as little time on the means as possible consistent with achieving the end. Only idiots live to work.

•The quickest and simplest way to wreck any relationship is to listen to gossip. The worst way to spend your time is spreading more. People who spread gossip are the plague-carriers of our day. Cockroaches are clean, kindly creatures in comparison.

•Trying to please other people is largely a futile activity. Everyone will be mad at you sometime. Most of the people you deal with will dislike, disparage, belittle, or ignore what you say or do most of the time. Besides, you can never really know what others do want, so a good deal of whatever you do in that regard will go to waste. Be comforted. Those who love you will probably love you regardless, and they are the ones whose opinions are worth caring about. The rest aren’t worth five minutes of thought between them.

•Every winner is destined to be a loser in due course. It’s great to be up on the winner’s podium. Just don’t imagine you can stay there for ever. Worst of all is being determined to do so, by any means available.

•You can rarely, if ever, please, placate, change, or mollify an asshole. The best thing you can do is stay away from every one you encounter. Being an asshole is a contagious disease. The more time you spend around one, the more likely you are to catch it and become one too.

•Everything takes twice as long as you plan for and produces results about half as good as you hoped. There’s no reason to be downhearted about this. Just allow for it and move on.

•People are oddly consistent. Liars usually tell lies. Cheaters cheat whenever it suits them. A person who confides in you has usually confided in several others first—but not got the response they wanted. A loyal friend will stay loyal under enormous amounts of thoughtless abuse.

•However hard you try, you can’t avoid being yourself. Who else could you be? You can act and pretend, but the person acting and pretending is still you. And if you won’t accept yourself—and do the best you can with what you have—who then has any obligation to accept you?

•When it comes to blatant lies, there are none more egregious than budget figures. Time spent agonizing over them is time wasted. Even if (miracle of miracles!) yours are honest and accurate, no one else will have been so foolish.

•The loudest noise in the world is the sound of people whining. Don’t add to it.

*18/702/13*

Tragic. I like bees. They pollinate. They produce honey. They are vastly important. I like honey – a lot.

A lot of bloggers and journalists have been using a statement (but unproven) – from Albert Einstein, in which he claims that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

I’ll do the math for you: 2012.

We don’t need an Albert Einstein quote to know that we are in trouble.

Nobody seems to know why this is occurring and there has been speculation that cell phones are to blame. Apparently, the frequency interferes with the bees� natural navigation system causing them to get lost and they are subsequently unable to find their way back to their hives.

Not Good.

Bees are one of the MOST Essential pollinators on the planet.

Can things get any worse?

*1/702/13*

I told the woman who I was and she left the following number: 800.427.2449 800.427.2449 and asked me to return the call. She gave me her name as Tory and told me that anyone could help.

It sounded odd. I called John with the info and when he returned the call, they told him that they couldn’t help him because he couldn’t provide the card number. He wasn’t even aware that he had a Bank of America card! I told him I would help him find it. I ended up finding the card – which was never activated. He called the number again and it routed him to another number and then disconnected. He tried calling the number on the back of the card and it was out of service. It must be an old number. I told him to look online to find a legitimate number and when he called they basically told him that the card had zero balance, was never activated and that no one there had ever called.

I looked up the number on http://whocalled.us/ and sure enough it’s a fraud number. Someone needs to do something about this.

This is the second time this has happened over the last few months.

In December my brother and I had photos taken at Sears (in Oakland). I called in January to have them shipped to my house. The charge was something like 7 dollars. As I was reciting my debit card number over the phone, my instinct told me to stop and to use a credit card instead. I figured it was worth the security and I would pay off the amount off immediately.

Two days later I get a call from the credit card company that my card was flagged for suspicious use. Someone had tried to use the card to buy some expensive luggage at Coach.com. Uh yeah – not me. I immediately cancelled the card and had another one reissued.

I am so tired of thieves.

*2/702/13*

I’ll leave it for another day.

Good Night!

*3/702/13*

Tragic. I like bees. They pollinate. They produce honey. They are vastly important. I like honey – a lot.

A lot of bloggers and journalists have been using a statement (but unproven) – from Albert Einstein, in which he claims that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

I’ll do the math for you: 2012.

We don’t need an Albert Einstein quote to know that we are in trouble.

Nobody seems to know why this is occurring and there has been speculation that cell phones are to blame. Apparently, the frequency interferes with the bees� natural navigation system causing them to get lost and they are subsequently unable to find their way back to their hives.

Not Good.

Bees are one of the MOST Essential pollinators on the planet.

Can things get any worse?

*4/702/13*

Article via [via the latimes]

Advanced Medical Optics Inc. is recalling its Complete MoisturePlus contact lens solutions and is calling on consumers to stop using them after data showed a higher risk of eye infections.

The announcement late Friday followed AMO’s recall of the same product last year because of bacterial contamination, and a recall by rival Bausch & Lomb Inc. after its contact lens solution was linked to infections.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention interviewed 46 patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare but serious cornea infection, and found that of the 39 who wore soft contact lenses, 21 used Complete MoisturePlus.

The CDC estimated that risk of infection was at least seven times greater among users of the Complete MoisturePlus solution compared with those who were not, the company said.

“As patient safety is paramount to AMO, the company is taking decisive action to stop shipments, recall product from the marketplace and encourage consumers to discontinue the use of AMO Complete MoisturePlus until further information is available,” the Santa Ana-based company said.

AMO said there was no evidence to suggest that the recall was related to a product contamination issue.

The company did not give an outlook for the financial repercussions of recalling the product, one of its top-selling items.

Last November, it recalled almost 3 million units of the Complete MoisturePlus solution because of sterility problems and lowered its earnings forecast.

*5/702/13*

[via]

SAN FRANCISCO – Maverick airline Virgin America plans to begin selling tickets Thursday, giving travelers their first chance to book a trip on planes equipped to pamper passengers even when they aren’t flying first-class.

The airline’s inaugural flights are scheduled to take off Aug. 8 from Los Angeles and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and arrive at roughly the same time late that morning in San Francisco, which will serve as Virgin America’s hub.

Tickets for the flights were expected to go on sale Thursday around 3 a.m. PDT through Virgin America’s Web site and customer service number, 877-359-8474 877-359-8474. A one-way ticket between Los Angeles and San Francisco will start at $44, while one-way tickets for the San Francisco-New York flights will start at $139.

Burlingame-based Virgin America also will sell tickets for flights to Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., scheduled to start in September and October.

Conceived by British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin America is promising to shake up the U.S. airline industry by making flying a more luxurious experience at affordable prices. The airline has raised nearly $300 million from investors, led by Branson’s Virgin Group, which controls the British-based Virgin Atlantic airline.

*19/702/13*