The Good Life

In order to have a good life one must have rice.
First you have to heat a skillet on the stove to medium with a bit of olive oil. Then you sprinkle in some fresh rosemary, snapping off the stems with your thumbnail so that your fingers smell like pine and the wild outdoors all day.
When the rosemary sizzles in the olive oil you know it's time to put in the chopped onion, and when that's all brown, the garlic goes in. And when all of that's all brown and sizzly, it hops out of the pan and sits in a bowl, waiting patiently for its turn again.
Into the hot pan goes a small puddle of chicken broth with more olive oil, sprinkled with the sunshine and lemon taste of coriander, grains of onion and garlic. That's when the rice comes in, stirred into the hot, oily pan until it sizzles and gets brown and crunchy on the bottom. The onions and garlic get stirred back in and it cooks a little more, until it is ready for a deep green bowl and your tongue.

A Hodge Podge Kind of Life

“The prospect of a proper tea had fetched the privy councillors out in greater numbers than had been anticipated: dinner would have been a chore whereas tea was a treat. There was such a crowd that chairs were in short supply, and there was a lot of running to and fro by the staff in order to get everybody seated, though this turned out to be part of the fun. Some were seated on the usual gilt party chairs, but others found themselves ensconced on a priceless Louis the XV bergere or a monogrammed hall chair brought in from the vestibule, with one former lord chancellor ending up perched on a little cork-topped stool brought down from a bathroom.”
- The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett

Darkness

“Even now I thrive in darkness, like bacteria and Batman. That’s why I do radio.”
- Andrew Goldstein, This American Life TV show, S02E04