NYT Linkies

At Washington State University, students (and staff who happen to be there) are provided with free copies of the New York Times every day, and I take full advantage of the offer. It's the only paper that I usually sit down and read on paper, and I have to say that I really enjoy it. In the past couple of days, there have been a couple of must-see* bits that I would never have noticed had I been reading the online version.

Ever heard of "molecular gastronomy?"

And the techniques behind at least half the 20 or 30 dishes that guests are currently served, from a repertory of thousands, remain mystifying. I’m talking about trompe l’oeil like an elliptical olive that is actually pure liquid, or golden beads of caviar made from olive oil, or stark white pine cone mousse, or Parmesan snow.

And from the obituaries, the woman I want to be when I grow up. An endocrinologist who had heard one too many times that women were too hormonal to be competent, Estelle R. Ramey.

In a letter published in The Washington Star, she wrote, “As an endocrinologist in good standing, I was startled to learn that ovarian hormones are toxic to brain cells.”

She went on to remind the public that during the Cuban missile crisis, the nation had a president who suffered from a severe hormonal imbalance: John F. Kennedy, who had Addison’s disease, an endocrine disorder.

* "Must-see" relative to the interestests of a feminist molecular biologist who loves cooking and innovation in the kitchen.