Dust on the Bookshelf

Tim Polenta, I mean Pawlenty, wants to be Vice President

Some of you may remember my earlier discussion comparing Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty with Polenta...

            And yet I can't stop thinking about Tim Pawlenty. This man:

            

            He seems nice enough from this picture. And I figured as the former governor of Minnesota he's probably smart enough too. Until I saw the video in which he thought Bill O'Reilly's calling him "vanilla" (re: plain) meant that O'Reilly was playing the race card. Or the video of the Republican presidential debate, after his "ObamneyCare" comment was brought up, in which he back-stepped and sucked-up so hard to Mitt Romney I thought he was just going to abandon his podium to go door-to-door for the former governor of Massachusetts.

            Geez, this guy seems lame, and confusingly so. Maybe comparing him with the food that always brings him to mind will stir some clarity into this melting pot.

            -Polenta -vs- Pawlenty
            -Bland unless well-seasoned -vs- Bland and politically unseasoned
            -congeals over hot fire -vs- breaks down under fire
            -sticks to your ribs -vs- sticks it to Mitt
            -can be molded into a loaf -vs- easily molded and aloof
            -vs- "vanilla"

I refresh your memory today to make a bold claim about the man. Tim Pawlenty wants to be Vice President. He always has. As mentioned above, TP was early afraid to stand up to Mitt Romney and refused to confront him in person. In this past week's Republican Presidential debate, TP was given the opportunity to actually confront Romney on his state health care plan and defend his creation of the term "Obamneycare."
   
In that clip TP is evasive as ever and while he does stand behind his creation of the term, he mostly focuses on how he better contrasts with President Obama than Mr. Romney.

But it gets better. After the moderator asks many of the candidates about certain absent figures (Rick Perry and Sarah Palin), TP takes the opportunity on an unrelated question to name drop and highlight a time he got to hang out with Rick Perry. Watch the clip for yourself, but all I heard him say was "pick me rick! pick me!"
  

Sunday Pawlenty officially dropped out of the race for Republican Presidential nominee. He came in third in the Iowa straw poll. A day earlier, Rick Perry announced that he would run for president (here we go again, texas). Seems that TP probably ticked Mitt Romeny off one too many times, but lucky for Tim, he has not yet gotten on Rick's bad-side. He practically gave him a shout out and a thumbs up at this weekend's debate. 

As I said before, like polenta, Pawlenty can be easily molded into any desired shape. So I would not be surprised if we soon saw him take the form of a Mockingbird, Texas' state bird, and perch himself on the roof of Rick Perry's camp, mimicking any cry that political campaign makes. 

Ratatouille and Polenta

I did some cooking yesterday. I made two things that remind me of something other than what they are as foods: Ratatouille and Polenta.

Ratatouille.
This is an amazing dish that originates from the South of France. It is basically a lot of vegetables cooked down until they are soft. Then you eat them. The key is having time to cut them all and then having the right combination of vegetables. Here's an image to get your mouth watering while I briefly wax non-poetic about this dish.

The vegetables that I used: onions, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, red and yellow bell pepper, tomato and EGGPLANT.
Eggplants are essential to ratatouille and are also objectively a beautiful alien-like plant.

Is anyone else inspired? afraid??

Anyways, in addition to fear, eggplants add a unique texture and pungency to the dish. Ratatouille is both colorful and flavorful, because that's what happens when you put half the produce isle in one pan.
But recently whenever someone brings up this plate, my mind immediately goes here (click image for video):

To a movie about a mouse in Paris that loves to cook. Is this a good thing? What is this? The 2007 oscar-winning film about a rodent and the culinary arts is a far cry from the previous connotation this dish held for me-- of rustic Southern France and the wives of old fisherman making due when the catch that day was minimal.. Now I think of how hard it must be to be a rat (especially one who wants to be a chef) in the haute-cuisine world of Paris, France.

What??

Polenta.

And yet I can't stop thinking about Tim Pawlenty. This man:

He seems nice enough from this picture. And I figured as the former governor of Minnesota he's probably smart enough too. Until I saw the video in which he thought Bill O'Reilly's calling him "vanilla" (re: plain) meant that O'Reilly was playing the race card. Or the video of the Republican presidential debate, after his "ObamneyCare" comment was brought up, in which he back-stepped and sucked-up so hard to Mitt Romney I thought he was just going to abandon his podium to go door-to-door for the former governor of Massachusetts.

Geez, this guy seems lame, and confusingly so. Maybe comparing him with the food that always brings him to mind will stir some clarity into this melting pot.

Polenta -vs- Pawlenty

Bland unless well-seasoned -vs- Bland and politically unseasoned

congeals over hot fire -vs- breaks down under fire

sticks to your ribs -vs- sticks it to Mitt

can be molded into a loaf -vs- easily molded and aloof

-vs- "vanilla"

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In short, two things on my mind: Disney and the 2012 Election.