Author Archives: Garrett Wollman

So what just happened?

Posted on 2016-11-09

I’ve been pretty quiet lately, and haven’t had a whole lot of time or energy for baking. But we just had this, um, shocking result in an election, and I wanted to put a few words down about it. Everything … Continue reading →

Posted in Language, Law & Society, States of mind | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Travels

This past week I missed what was probably my last chance this year for a week of bike commuting, because I spent much of it traveling instead — and, as I found out from the bike shop when I got … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2016-09-25 | Tagged , ,

Quote of the day

Posted on 2016-09-17

(A teacher in a sorcery school is giving an impromptu lecture:) “Each of you may live a long time; each of you is of significant strength. You could do good, if you could judge all the consequences of what you … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2016-09-17 | Tagged ,

Advice for fantasy writers

Advice for fantasy writers, from a reader (Originally published as a sequence of tweets in slightly different form.) Let the story go where it needs to go. Don’t fill in too much of the background. Remember that, if you’re successful, … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2016-09-16 | Tagged

Peanut-butter cookies

Posted on 2016-09-06

This weekend I made peanut-butter cookies for the first time in years, probably decades. These were big peanut-butter cookies, over two inches in diameter, definitely one per serving, from Joanne Chang’s Flour (Chronicle Books, 2010; p. 114), so they’re not really … Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged , , ,

Recipe super-quick take: Joanne Chang’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Posted on 2016-09-04

So, pretty much every bakery has to have an oatmeal-raisin cookie formula, for catering orders if nothing else. And Joanne Chang’s recipe from Flour (Chronicle Books, 2010; p. 112) is not all that much different from the one you might find … Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged , , ,

Go buy these books

I first became aware of Graydon Saunders many years ago, through the intercession of (or perhaps collaboration with) Welsh-Canadian fantasy writer Jo Walton. While it was as a poet that I knew him, he apparently works in IT (specifically document-processing … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2016-09-04 | Tagged ,

Taking stock: a summer of bike commuting

Posted on 2016-08-31

In 2015, I had one fitness goal (beyond just continuing to lose weight): to ride from home to my office, eat lunch there, and ride back home. It quickly turned out that I wasn’t exactly aiming very high — it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Transportation | Tagged ,

Apple Country Century

Posted on 2016-08-27

If you live in the Greater Boston area, perhaps you’ve noticed the odd symbols — sometimes half a dozen of them — spray-painted on the shoulder at some intersections. They often look like letters, circles, or chevrons, and often have … Continue reading →

Posted in Transportation | Tagged ,

Blogging status update

One or two of you may have noticed that I’ve not posted very much lately. Mostly this is because I’ve been bike commuting, which means I can only bring small things into work (not carrying a cake or pie in … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2016-08-23