Ontroerd door uitzending BNR

Vanochtend op BNR had @HumbertoTan het over de langste vrouw ter wereld (2.36m), een Chinees, die net aan een hersentumor overleden is. Bleek dat een Nederlandse schoenmaker haar schoenen maakte. Hij was in de uitzending en vertelde over het trieste leven van die vrouw als circus 'attractie' en daarna het lijden onder een tumor waar ze al jaren voor haar dood last van had (net als alle reuzen, blijkt). Na 14 jaar in het circus getoond te zijn, woonde ze weer bij haar moeder waar er regelmatig mensen voor de deur stonden om haar aan te schouwen en uit te lachen.

De schoenmaker is via een ziekenhuis in contact met haar gekomen en reisde af naar China om haar voeten op te meten (maat 57). De eerste keer dat hij haar ontmoette, vroeg hij om haar favoriete kleur (rood) en maakte voor haar dus rode schoenen. Ze was helemaal overdonderd dat het uberhaupt kon.

Afijn, Humberto merkte op dat het verhaal de schoenmaker (dhr Wessels) niet ongeroerd liet, wat inderdaad het geval was. Als laatste vroeg hij aan dhr Wessels wat een paar schoenen van maat 57 zoal kostte. De schoenmaker antwoorde 'die schoenen kreeg ze van mij kado', waarop de presentator zei 'Meneer Wessels, u bent een goed mens'.

Dat vond ik zo ontroerend dat ik er nu nog een brok in mijn keel krijg als ik dit schrijf. Dat er zulke mensen bestaan die belangeloos om anderen bekommeren; ik word er stil van.

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Appendix
Na het schrijven van deze blogpost, heb ik het getwitterd naar Humberto Tan en BNr en ik kreeg, geheel onverwachts, een aantwoord. Die luidt als volgt:

@majikthijs @BNR Mooi! Dank, heel veel dank. De schoenmaker ontroerde mij ook! Niet alleen een goed mens, ook een mooi mens..

Een bevestiging (als er een nodig was) dat dhr Tan zelf niet alleen een mooi mens maar ook nog een heer. Wat een mooi geschenk voor pakjesavond!

Untitled

A silica sol–gel design strategy for nanostructured metallic materials go.nature.com/bpEBT3
— Majikthijs (@majikthijs) April 10, 2012

CEASE therapy

I've been pretty active on twitter lately and I'm increasingly amazed at how quickly the spambots can get to you after each post. On 23rd Jan, I read the following tweet concerning Prince Phillip:

Andy Lewis @lecanardnoir

Very wealthy old man has been quite healthy. In unrelated news, believes nonsense like copper bracelets & homeopathy http://qako.me/A4lNQx

To whit, after reading said article, I replied jocularly with:

Majikthijs @majikthijs

@lecanardnoir the article curiously omits to inform us of the result of said bracelet and hpathy despite the continuing limp-wristedness

Within a few hours I was being followed by @ceasetherapy who are based in The Hague and who hold the mistaken view that vaccinations are the cause of autism. This view has been discussed extensively here, here and here (in Dutch). The 'founder' of the therapy, and father of current head of the CEASE organisation, was given a formal warning by the Dutch medical association for prescribing an unproven homeopathic treatment for whooping cough instead of the vaccination, thereby exposing the individual patient treatment misusing his position as a physician and engendering fear of vaccination which could lead to endangerment of



I noticed that @Ceasetherapy unfollowed me today, so I decided to look at their twitter stream and I noticed the following tweet:


https://twitter.com/ceasetherapy/statuses/161850896941199360

Study by @GenRescue: vaccinated boys have a 155% greater chance of having a neurological disorder like ADHD, Autism than unvaccinated boys

I followed the link to @GenRescue's website (www.generationrescue.org) and it looks very slick and the language appears at first glance to be neutral, but with phrases like "Educate before you vaccinate" and "Generation Rescue is a community ... who have vaccinated their children and now believe in informed consent.", you kind of get the idea where it's all leading. The organisation is run by Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Jerry Kartzinel: they both come up with no canards in the quakometer, but my gut tells me that they're using some very cleverly couched language.

There is a resources page (http://www.generationrescue.org/resources/) and under the science banner are a number of references to research in (hopefully) peer reviewed journals. I am not a medical professional, so I have no real way of assessing either the reputation or affiliation of the journals in question or the efficacy of the content. With titles like Altern Ther Health Med., it doesn't bode all that well. There is one promising looking paper: The ScanBrit randomised, controlled, single-blind study of a gluten- and casein-free dietary intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders. The abstract at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20406576 concludes that "dietary intervention may positively affect developmental outcome for some children diagnosed with ASD" but in the absence of a placebo they were "unable to disqualify potential effects derived from intervention outside of dietary changes." i.e. limited or no effect.

Happy New Year

Nut roast, roast potatoes and mixed vegetables

This is a classic vegetarian alternatief to a roast, but you can also make it into individual cutlets. When I was growing up 'nut cutlets' was used to deride the diet of the woolly sock brigade (vegetarians). Now it's just about healthy and tasty eating.

Preparation 20 mins

Cooking time 40 mins

Serves 4 adults

What you need for the nut loaf:

175g mixed chopped nuts, (not too fine)

175g breadcrumbs

4-6 mushrooms, sliced

onion, garlic, flour, seasoning

About 100-150g (sweet) potatoes per person

Vegetables
One large carrot
2-3 sticks of celery
mixed seasonal mushrooms/toadstools
cherry tomatoes (halved)
oregano







Pre-warm the oven to 190°C. Place a large basting pan in the oven with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Scrub and chop the potatoes, hustle with the oil in the basting pan and season with crushed salt and black pepper. Leave enough room in the pan for the roast/cutlets. Put the potatoes in the oven, skin side down, and let them warm up with the oven. The potatoes will need about 40 minutes at temperature to get nice and soft.

Fruit an onion in olive oil. Add garlic and sliced mushrooms, cook until soft. Sprinkle a tablespoon of flour on top and stir well. Add 300ml of stock or water and bring to the boil, stirring continuously. Stir in the breadcrumbs and seasoning. Salt and pepper are just fine but you can add parsley or tarragon to bring out the nutty flavour. Fresh chives (or chilli pepper if you're really adventurous) give a bit of a kick. Feel free to experiment.

• About the nuts: if you use a blender it makes a very fine powder which is great for Bakewell tart, but it makes the roast a bit stodgy. You can just elect to wrap the nuts in a tea towel and give them a good bashing with a rolling pin. Trust me, you'll feel great.

The mixture will start to go all gooey and stick together. Now it's time to decide whether you want cutlets or a loaf. If it's the loaf, lump the whole mixture together into a more or less loaf shaped mass. Coat the loaf evenly with flour on all sides. Stick it/them in the now warm oven with the potatoes. Roast the loaf for 40 minutes, basting occasionally.

• If you've chosen cutlets, you might want to put them on a separate tray lined with baking paper. Shape the mixture into beef burger sized cutlets, about an inch thick (25mm). Coat them evenly on both sides with flour and give them a dab of oil on both sides so they don't dry out. The cutlets need about 25-30 minutes to cook, so now's the time to check on the spuds. If they're still hard and white, which is highly likely if the oven's only just got up to temperature, wait about 10 minutes and then shove the cutlets in.

The lovely thing about roast dinners is you get oodles of time to clear the decks and prepare the side dish. I've made it really easy with stir fried vegetables. Slice the veg (make the carrot nice and thin), get the oil nice and hot and add the veg in the following order: carrot, celery, oregano, 2 mins, mushrooms, 2 minutes, cherry tomatoes, 1 minute.

• An alternative cooking method for families with small children. Cut the carrot a little thicker and soften them up with the celery in olive oil at low to moderate heat for 10 minutes or until soft. Turn the heat right up and add just a splash more oil before adding the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes as above.
• Don't waste lots of money frying in extra virgin olive oil, save it for salads or on bread ie when you consume it straight from the bottle. I always use a blended olive oil for frying, especially at lower temperatures.
• If you're going to really stir fry then you need to use sesame oil because it can reach higher temperatures before it starts to degrade. In that case olive oil is not suitable.

Serve with the roast/cutlets and a dry white wine. Enjoy!