The feel-good post of the month

[gordonzola]

My arm/wrist is much better. Instead of everything hurting me, it seems to be mostly just cheese wrapping (not cutting/pricing/sealing etc.) and, unfortunately, typing. But it's getting there. I still wont be around LJ much for awhile because I’m way behind on writing deadlines I had to put off in September. Plus, the worker-coop conference I help organize is right around the corner so I’m a little crazed working on it and I’ll be out of town for the conference right after my birthday.

But I miss my electronic friends. Awwwww.

Comments

We miss you too... you big butthead.

[bornbent.livejournal.com]

Please tell me that each of these posts was written with a break in between and that you are not overdoing it and sitting down and writing for hours... please. like we said yesterday on the phone... yes?

you can't be selfish with your healing. i don't care how ambidextrous you say you are, that right hand belongs to womankind. officially. i just registered it.

Re: We miss you too... you big butthead.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I did 'em all at once but with little one paragraph posts, there's no need to go back and edit etc. so it was really quick. Thanks for worrying about me though.

[zeppo.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you are healing up, watch out for that cheese wrapping business.
That cheese can be wiley.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

The cheese can sense your fear.

[zerbie.livejournal.com]

Awwww, indeed. We miss you, too.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

We miss you too. But get better at your own pace.

[vestalvixen.livejournal.com]

Please rescue me from my sad, vanilla life.

You should get one of those computer doo-hickeys that you speak into and it types up the words for you. Of course, I have no idea how much they cost.

[arasay.livejournal.com]

I like the "lots of little posts" thing you did here. Means I can read them all sloooowly...

[confabulator.livejournal.com]

I like how they're all perfectly timed at two minutes apart.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

thanks for noticing. It was quite accidental, actually.

[jette.livejournal.com]

*misses you too*

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

i just wanted to say hi - you are a friend of a friend, and i was reading your journal, and i love all the discussion about cheese and san francisco, so i decided to friend you. hope you don't mind. :) i look forward to purchasing some cheese from your fine establishment at some point!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Welcome to my journal. Thanks for dropping by. are you a friend of a real life friend or an LJ "friend"?

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

friend of LJ friends - stimps, substitute, and citizenx, to name a few. :)

i'm going to a cheese (and, er, bongs) party on friday. among other things, i love goat cheeses; my most recent favorites have been goat gouda and spanish drunken goat. i also like tangy swiss cheeses, like appenzeller, that leave your tongue a little bit tingly. this party is not for cheese pussies. got any good suggestions, offhand? :)

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

sorry, I haven't been online much. I always have plenty of cheese suggestions. But since it's already friday evening, I probably missed you.

The Pecorino Ginepro is really good right now. Aged Italian sheep cheese washed with balsamic vinegar and herbs. Yum.

The Saenkanter Gouda I find to be particularly good for stoners. Actually, Gjetost is perfect for a cheese and bongs party.

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

this party actually got cancelled and hasn't re-happened yet, but i'm saving this info for when it does. thanks! :)

[superchones.livejournal.com]

I read about some repetitive stress injury therapy that involves playing piano. It's obvious: you and a piano and a few songs about cheese. You can take that shit on the road!

I am glad your arm is feeling better, now of course your entire body is under stress, right? Take care of it, sir. And when you are less stressed---> beer!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

you've never heard me sing obviously. maybe you could do the singing for me. We could do covers. "Little French Raclette" by Prince. "Leerdammer Dub" by the Clash. "Escape (the Ricotta Salata song)" by someonewho'snameIdon't know. It'll be great.

and beer relaxes me now that I'm not puking.

[superchones.livejournal.com]

hell yes. i think we got a gimmick here. my singing voice is horrendous but not like jlo-brand horrendous so it's all right.

and uh, rupert holmes did that godawful pina colada song. may i be pummeled with many pounds of parmegiana reggiano.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I thought you frowned on cheese puns.

On another note, I have a demo of Montegnolo coming up next week. Any hints or serving suggestions? Our cheese specialist recommended grapes, and fig or apricot jam, but I was curious what you'd suggest.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I love cheese puns if:

1. I am making them

2. they're sung, not spoken.

"If you like ricotta salata / getting caught in the rain ..."

As for the Montagnolo, I'm a cheese sampling purist myself, but those are good choices. a dark honey might be nice too. Quince paste also, but them you'll make people think the cheese is Spanish. yum.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I love cheese puns if:

1. I am making them

2. they're sung, not spoken.


Do you need both conditions to be fulfilled in order to be happy, or just one? What I'm asking is, if I'd walked up to your counter and broken into a rendition of "Johnny B. Gouda" or "Catch Me (Emmenthaler)," would you still have applied the Stern Voice of Correction and Shaming?

Thanks for the sampling suggestions. I will be encouraging people to try the Montagnolo solo (ooh, that rhymed), but our helpless customers so often need their hands held when making the leap from tasting to serving. I like the idea of honey with cheese - very daring for these parts.

I want to know why a German cheese has an Italian-sounding name.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

You mean the Stern Voice of Correction and Shaming like when you tried to grab the cheese paddle?

I think you might be able to get away with it. It's kind of on a case by case basis. Sung by a cheese professional would qualify as ok, i think.

[missruckus.livejournal.com]

"electronic friends" makes me giggle.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I usually reserve it for my TV and stereo. But I realized it applies here too.

[missruckus.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's a very apt term. it makes me think of friends you plug in though. :P

i hate to ask

[ilipodscrill.livejournal.com]

but are friends electric? i miss your virtual presence. but i'm one of the spoiled ones that gets rl gordonzola too. ah, gluttony!

[jennizane.livejournal.com]

miss you too cheesy G, take care of yourself and your arm/hands. I had gorgonzola sauce the other night and thought of you. ahw :-)

[akki.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear (er... read! bah! Whatever!) that you're on the mend. I look forward to more tales of cheese, SF, and punk rawk.

[confabulator.livejournal.com]

Yay! I've been thinking about you and your arm/wrist lately. So glad to hear that it's been getting better!

[wookiepocket.livejournal.com]

you know, i didn't even read this post, though i am sure that it is charming and witty, as all of your posts are. the fact of the matter is, it didn't have any footnotes, and therefore didn't get read.

the important thing is that i am commenting, right?

i miss your goofy calls to my work where you tell me you have the cheese i need. sure, it only happened twice, but it was memorable. even if only for the fact that i mistook you for a phone wanker both times and couldn't quite figure out your kink with cheese. what do you mean that you have my creamy cheese?

anyhow, i have been drinking again and must now post pictures of my photocopied ass on usenet. i hope that you are having a lovely evening, as well.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

geez, my last four posts were footnote-sized, isn't that enough? Next time I'll put asterisks in front.

Your cheese is probably never coming back. see the cheese post below. The distributors are scared. I'm always paranoid when I call you or GV people on legitimate business that people think I'm a wanker call. and I'm sure that fuels the suspicion even more.

do you have a web address for your ass?

[wookiepocket.livejournal.com]

sorry. i hit sleepytown before i completed the upload. as a consolation prize, the ass in this dildo harness picture (http://www.blowfish.com/catalog/toys/harnesses.html#t-ssi-1642) is mine. sorry about the panties.

if ever you want to see my junk in person, we can work out a private showing. or, just catch me at the beer bust on sundays.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

well, my birthday is coming up.

[jinxremoving.livejournal.com]

good luck with your deadlines. um, i have a cheese question for you: does vegetarian parmesan exist, and if not, what is a good substitute? ...

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

your question is difficult semantically. In the EU now, only Parmigiano Reggiano is supposed to be called "Parmesan". No Reggiano can be vegetarian because it's name-controlled designation doesn't allow non-animal rennet.

But if you mean parmesan-like, hard, aged cheese (which in the US still gets called and marketed as "parmesan") yes, there are some. The difficulty is that the only place you really see a difference between animal and non-animal rennet is in aged cheeses. Especially as the non-animal rennet was being developed it just didn't work when aging cheese well over a year. That's not really true anymore but these feeling persist. no one wants to lose warehouses full of cheese after you've paid to age them for 18 months or whatever.

Since I have no idea what is available in Ireland i'd suggest a web search. I know I have bought "parmesan"-type cheese that was packaged in the UK labeled vegetarian. "Twineham Grange" was the company name I think.

[jinxremoving.livejournal.com]

thanks for explaining! i come across parmigiano reggiano a lot and i was a bit confused. actually, after i posted my query i went to the health food shop and thought to ask them - a novel idea - so i wound up with some twineham grange, indeed, and used some last night - lovely. it's a bit ridiculous that i didn't address this sooner. cheers!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I like to help people in their times of cheese need.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

stupid American ... I meant Scotland, not Ireland of course.

Did you ever get that zine, btw?

[jinxremoving.livejournal.com]

hah, that's okay. and yes! i did! i posted a thank you in my journal at some point, but that is indeed a lazy way to conduct things when i could've sent an e-mail, or even a livejournal comment. sorry! i'm kind of halfway through reading it but i am enjoying it. did you ever hear of giro's in belfast?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

yeah, cuz of my wrist injury I wasn't on the computer at all around that time. Glad you liked it. It would be better written if I wrote it today.

I don't think I've heard of giro's. I do remember hearing rumors of a similar space in Belfast but I thought it had a more militant anarchist name. ;)