William Morris's Breakfast in a New Utopia

[Tim W]

The great socialist writer, designer, craftsman, poet and thinker in his
fantasy of a new England of the future News from Nowhere
<http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Ewmorris/NewsFromNowhere/>, waking in the
morning in a rebuilt Hammersmith on the banks of an unpolluted Thames
among the happy and healthy inhabitants of the new society tastes the
bread of his Utopia:

and we fell to on our breakfast, which was simple enough, but most
delicately cooked, and set on the table with much daintiness. The
bread was particularly good, and was of several different kinds,
from the big, rather close, dark-coloured, sweet-tasting farmhouse
loaf, which was most to my liking, to the thin pipe-stems of wheaten
crust, such as I have eaten in Turin.

Yummy. Paradise.

Tim W

[Ophelia]

"Tim W" <tim....@mtavirgin.net> wrote in message
news:jp5hap$qvg$1...@dont-email.me...

Very nice:))

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[Dick Margulis]

Well, I have not been in Turin on this trip, but I can attest that in
Venice and Trieste, those thin pipe-stems of wheaten crust (a much
tastier, clearly handmade, version of the machine-molded, ultrathin,
bread sticks served at many Italian restaurants in the U.S.) are alive
and well.

Frankly, that has been among the highlights of the breads I've consumed
on this trip. Most of the bread has ranged from fair to godawful (a
"toast" ham and cheese sandwich I had for lunch at a seaside café
yesterday, on account of their being out of foccacia (sp?), was served
on Chorleywood-process white Pullman bread--yecch!). The bread sticks
are one exception. Another was the crown roll served at the hotel
breakfast buffet in Trieste this morning. It was not a NYC-style Kaiser
roll, in that it was smaller and not so flaky-messy to eat. But it had
an honest crust on it and a pretty good crumb. Certainly the best crown
roll I've had in many years, though not the best roll overall.

In Venice we did walk past a couple of small on-premise bakeries that
appeared to have really wonderful bread. Alas, we didn't stop. In one of
the windows, in honor of the America's Cup training session going on in
Venice last week, there was a sailboat made of bread, about half a meter
high. Just a skilled baker having fun, not something for sale or for
consumption.

[Ophelia]

"Dick Margulis" <marg...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:-6adneIr8PhsOCXS...@supernews.com...

You do get around, Dick:) I hope you enjoyed yourselves anyway:))

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[Dick Margulis]

On 5/20/2012 5:12 PM, Ophelia wrote:

>
> You do get around, Dick:) I hope you enjoyed yourselves anyway:))
>

Tuesday we were both sick, and we pretty much vegged at the hotel (had a
good, reasonably priced lunch a couple of doors away at a non-tourist
restaurant where no one spoke English and the bread was pretty good, and
took a leisurely walk in a local park; otherwise slept). Had a 4:15 am
wakeup call Wednesday for an early flight, and were finally driving home
from the airport 22 hours later when I (perhaps unsurprisingly) fell
asleep and totaled the car and about 250 meters of guardrail. No
injuries, thank engineers, and I never really liked that car anyway. But
yes, overall, it was as pleasant a trip as one might hope for in Italy.
Was lucky to have been ripped off for only 100 euros or so this time
(http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/).

[Dick Margulis]

On 5/20/2012 5:12 PM, Ophelia wrote:
>
>

> "Dick Margulis" <marg...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:-6adneIr8PhsOCXS...@supernews.com...
>>

>> Frankly, that has been among the highlights of the breads I've
>> consumed on this trip. Most of the bread has ranged from fair to
>> godawful (a "toast" ham and cheese sandwich I had for lunch at a
>> seaside café yesterday, on account of their being out of foccacia
>> (sp?), was served on Chorleywood-process white Pullman bread--yecch!).

A postscript to that. Apparently this disgusting bread is being heavily
promoted as "special" toast (on billboards and buses, no less) and is
all the current rage, so the restaurant was proud to be serving it. Oh well.

[Ophelia]

"Dick Margulis" <marg...@comcast.net> wrote in message

news:bJOdnd_B4vcV9yPS...@supernews.com...

Good grief!!!!!!!!!! You are lucky to be alive!!

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[Ophelia]

"Dick Margulis" <marg...@comcast.net> wrote in message

news:07WdnVita5fD9iPS...@supernews.com...

Chorleywood stuff eh? Ugh:( Well I hope the rest of the trip was worth
it!

Well, at least you are home at last ... safe and sound?

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[Boron Elgar]

Good heavens, Dick, I am glad you and your wife emerged unscathed from
that. What a helluva way to end a vacation.

Boron

[Dick Margulis]

On 5/24/2012 4:50 PM, Ophelia wrote:
>
> Good grief!!!!!!!!!! You are lucky to be alive!!
>

And

On 5/24/2012 8:36 PM, Boron Elgar wrote:
>
> Good heavens, Dick, I am glad you and your wife emerged unscathed from
> that. What a helluva way to end a vacation.
>
> Boron

Well, I would say I'm lucky to have been born when I was rather than
thirty or forty years earlier. As those of you who are my age should
recall, before the late 1960s, nearly all cars consisted of a sheet
metal body bolted to a frame made of I-beams. Even the unibody cars were
designed on the same model, with box beams stamped into the floor of the
welded unibody.

The typical scenario was that you hammered out the dent in the fender,
applied bond-o, sanded and painted, replaced the windshield, cleaned the
blood off the steering wheel and dashboard, and sold the car to pay for
the driver's funeral.

But the designers of the 1969 Ford Torino had a better idea. They put an
S-curve into the front part of the stamped box beam. The thinking of the
engineers was that in a front end collision, the S-curves would
compress, accordion-like, and the energy of the collision would largely
be converted into the displacement of metal, rather than being
transmitted elastically to the bones of the driver and passengers.
Suddenly we entered a new era in which cars collapsed and drivers walked
away. Instead of selling the car to pay for the funeral, we could total
the car and cut down on the carnage. My parents would see a smashed car
on a wrecker and assume someone had died in the accident, because in
their experience, that much damage had meant that. I would see the same
smashed car and think how lucky the driver had been to be driving a
modern car.

Combine that with vastly improved guardrail designs that apply a similar
principle (absorb energy rather than resist damage), better roadway
design, three-point seat belts, airbags, and hundreds of other
engineered safety improvements. The net result is that traffic
fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles is now at the lowest it has
ever been (records have been kept since 1921).

So I often ask people, "Have you thanked an engineer today?"

Dick

[Motzarella]

"Dick Margulis" wrote in message
news:bJOdnd_B4vcV9yPS...@supernews.com...

Ah the irony. All who travel complain about bad roads and worse drivers in
Southern Europe. To be nicked at home. As you said, lucky to put off serious
accident until technology caught up with driving. :)

A shame to not find the Italians of your visit up to proper bread standards.

Since we visited in Seattle some years ago, the town amped up the quality of
its breads. Give a call when you head out this way again.

Alan

[Ophelia]

"Motzarella" <alz...@frontier.com> wrote in message
news:jpn4ak$c7a$1...@dont-email.me...

>
>
> "Dick Margulis" wrote in message
> news:bJOdnd_B4vcV9yPS...@supernews.com...
>
> On 5/20/2012 5:12 PM, Ophelia wrote:
>
>>
>> You do get around, Dick:) I hope you enjoyed yourselves anyway:))
>>
>
> Tuesday we were both sick, and we pretty much vegged at the hotel (had a
> good, reasonably priced lunch a couple of doors away at a non-tourist
> restaurant where no one spoke English and the bread was pretty good, and
> took a leisurely walk in a local park; otherwise slept). Had a 4:15 am
> wakeup call Wednesday for an early flight, and were finally driving home
> from the airport 22 hours later when I (perhaps unsurprisingly) fell
> asleep and totaled the car and about 250 meters of guardrail.

You too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sheesh you two are not fit to be let out !!! :)

Well, all's well that ends well! Thanks to engineers everywhere!

No
> injuries, thank engineers, and I never really liked that car anyway. But
> yes, overall, it was as pleasant a trip as one might hope for in Italy.
> Was lucky to have been ripped off for only 100 euros or so this time
> (http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/).
>
> Ah the irony. All who travel complain about bad roads and worse drivers in
> Southern Europe. To be nicked at home. As you said, lucky to put off
> serious accident until technology caught up with driving. :)
>
> A shame to not find the Italians of your visit up to proper bread
> standards.
>
> Since we visited in Seattle some years ago, the town amped up the quality
> of its breads. Give a call when you head out this way again.
>
> Alan

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[Dick Margulis]

On 5/25/2012 1:18 AM, Motzarella wrote:

>
> Since we visited in Seattle some years ago, the town amped up the
> quality of its breads. Give a call when you head out this way again.
>
> Alan

Will do.