Sourdough Bread for Dummies

 

This is an encore (revised) post from more than a decade ago.

I've been baking sourdough bread for a while now.  Recently, my son and I began experimenting with different methods.  While it's not complicated, it can be a time-consuming process. The process begins with the "sponge." This is the sourdough bread starter, which can take some time to become ready for sourdough bread or to be used as an added ingredient in other recipes.

 

I started my first sponge with special sourdough yeast found at a local grocery store, but it never worked well. The best product I have found is called Living Dough, and it is available on Amazon.  (I selected Italian for several reasons, but one was being so impressed on my visit to Frascati, Italy, when I stopped by a local bakery.  The baker brought out his sourdough starter and explained that its heritage went back centuries.  Imagine having something akin to a family tree for sourdough!) The key is to remember to take it out every week or two for its "feedings." This ensures that the yeast remains viable. I generally remove about half a cup of sponge every time I bring it out, ensuring that I replace it with a half cup of flour and a little warm, filtered water.  Basically, you are looking for the consistency of pancake batter.  Avoid using tap water, as it contains chlorine that can inhibit growth.

 

Here's a recipe for the sourdough bread — once you've got a usable sponge.

 

1 cup warm water

3 cups bread flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sourdough starter

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons - 2 tablespoons of olive oil

(optional) 1 tsp flax seed for Omega 3 boost

 

I start the sourdough in the bread machine, then transfer the formed loaf to a cast-iron Dutch Oven (like the one I link to) and then to a gently warmed oven. Be careful not to leave the heat on in the oven, as 200 degrees is too warm for the bread to rise properly. I generally allow the bread to rise for a total of three or four hours. This seems to improve the flavor.  I have also left it overnight, which seems to work quite well.

When you are ready to bake, remove the bread.  Preheat the oven to 500.  Once it is at the right temperature, put the bread back in and lower the temperature to 450.  Bake for the first 25 minutes with the cast-iron lid on.  After 25 minutes, remove the lid and reduce the temperature to 425°F for the last 25 minutes.  You can also add a little water to a bake-safe dish, as it may help improve the bread's texture.  

 

Don't forget that sourdough starter can be used in many different kinds of ways. I frequently use it in bread recipes as a substitute for sour cream. It's particularly great in pretzels and pancakes. Be creative!

 

When Interpretation of the Arts Wanders Off Track

 

I was recently enjoying a Bishop Barron interview with Ethan and Maya Hawke concerning their new movie, Wildcat.  Their film concerns the life and influence of Flannery O'Connor, one of my favorite authors.  While the first half hour was quite good, my ears perked when Maya began interpreting Flannery O'Connor's stories beyond a reasonable threshold.  It boils down to a debate concerning the intrinsic, objective value of art versus a more subjective rendering, and it's often discussed in university English Lit or art courses in one way or another.

For instance, one of my favorite artists is Caravaggio.  I have been fortunate to see several of his outstanding works in Italy, and I have always been captivated by how he paints light and conveys darkness.  While I love his paintings, Andrew Graham-Dixon's book, A Life Sacred and Profane, is right when it describes his life resembling his paintings as "a series of lightning flashes in the darkest of night."  He did not lead a life most would consider good, but instead brought hardship upon himself through his own crimes.  Still, we don't need to filter the paintings through the artist's life.  The art stands on its own.  It can be said that quality literary or visual art has its own life, separate and distinct from its creator.  The people who blacklist artists for failing to walk the line of political correctness, for instance, are oblivious to this subtlety or distinction.  Unfortunately, many in education circles seem intent on viewing art through a lens of psychology, symbolism, or sociology, which is their own creation alone.

This particularly struck me in the latter half of the interview I mentioned earlier. I am reading the letters of Tolkien and Flannery O'Connor, and this distaste for this manner of interpretation is prevalent throughout their letters, as well as those of C.S. Lewis. Here is how Flannery O'Connor puts it in a letter to a misguided teacher.

The interpretation of your ninety students and three teachers is fantastic and about as far from my intentions as it could get to be. If it were a legitimate interpretation, the story would be little more than a trick and its interest would be simply for abnormal psychology. I am not interested in abnormal psychology.

There is a change of tension from the first part of the story to the second where the Misfit enters, but this is no lessening of reality. This story is, of course, not meant to be realistic in the sense that it portrays the everyday doings of people in Georgia. It is stylized and its conventions are comic even though its meaning is serious.

Bailey’s only importance is as the Grandmother’s boy and the driver of the car. It is the Grandmother who first recognized the Misfit and who is most concerned with him throughout. The story is a duel of sorts between the Grandmother and her superficial beliefs and the Misfit’s more profoundly felt involvement with Christ’s action which set the world off balance for him.

The meaning of a story should go on expanding for the reader the more he thinks about it, but meaning cannot be captured in an interpretation. If teachers are in the habit of approaching a story as if it were a research problem for which any answer is believable so long as it is not obvious, then I think students will never learn to enjoy fiction. Too much interpretation is certainly worse than too little, and where feeling for a story is absent, theory will not supply it.

My tone is not meant to be obnoxious. I am in a state of shock.

Flannery O’Connor

Likewise, a shared aversion to excessive interpretation is evident in Tolkien's letters.

I have no time to provide bibliographical material concerning criticisms, reviews, or translations. 

The following points, however, I should like to make briefly. 

(1) One of my strongest opinions is that investigation of an author’s biography (or such other glimpses of his ‘personality’ as can be gleaned by the curious) is an entirely vain and false approach to his works – and especially to a work of narrative art, of which the object aimed at by the author was to be enjoyed as such: to be read with literary pleasure. So that any reader whom the author has (to his great satisfaction) succeeded in ‘pleasing’ (exciting, engrossing, moving etc.), should, if he wishes others to be similarly pleased, endeavour in his own words, with only the book itself as his source, to induce them to read it for literary pleasure. When they have read it, some readers will (I suppose) wish to ‘criticize’ it, and even to analyze it, and if that is their mentality they are, of course, at liberty to do these things – so long as they have first read it with attention throughout. Not that this attitude of mind has my sympathy: as should be clearly perceived in Vol. I p. 272: Gandalf: ‘He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.’ 

(2) I have very little interest in serial literary history, and no interest at all in the history or present situation of the English ‘novel’. My work is not a ‘novel’, but an ‘heroic romance’ a much older and quite different variety of literature. 

(3) Affixing ‘labels’ to writers, living or dead, is an inept procedure, in any circumstances: a childish amusement of small minds: and very ‘deadening’, since at best it overemphasizes what is common to a selected group of writers, and distracts attention from what is individual (and not classifiable) in each of them, and is the element that gives them life (if they have any). But I cannot understand how I should be labelled ‘a believer in moral didacticism’. Who by? It is in any case the exact opposite of my procedure in The Lord of the Rings. I neither preach nor teach.

Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition (pp. 580-581). (Function). Kindle Edition. 

In addition, here is an excerpt from C.S. Lewis, which Glyer referenced in her book, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in a Community.

Many reviewers said that the Ring in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was suggested by the atom bomb.  What could be more plausible?  Here is a book published when everyone was preoccupied by that sinister invention. Here in the center of the book is a weapon which it seems madness to throw away, yet fatal to use.  Yet, in fact, the chronology of the book's composition makes the theory impossible.  ("Modern Theology")

I was disappointed that Bishop Barron did not say something along these lines when the conversation took a nosedive, but I imagine it's hard for a host to be too critical in this kind of interview.  Meanwhile, I am left wondering if I should bother with Wildcat, or if I should give it the same authority as...kitty litter.

OR's Statutorily Mandated Disregard for Fed Law

It's ORS 180.805-810 and ORS 181A.820-181A-829 that set the backdrop for Oregon's sanctuary status.  While that's bad enough, Oregon's Dept of Administrative Services now promotes training modules that remind state employees that any cooperation with federal law enforcement (short of the existence of a warrant) places an employee's livelihood in peril.  This is somewhat challenging for yours truly for several reasons.

First of all, I grew up in Yakima, Washington, while it was being torn apart by drug violence brought north through the illegal drug trade and human trafficking.  It also happens that I nearly went to work for the US Border Patrol in Texas more than thirty years ago.  On top of this, however, I am active within the Catholic Church, which (rightly) interprets part of its mission to take care of the needy and forgotten--whether or not illegal immigrants.  However, it also does not oppose the enforcement of a nation's right to limit entry.  A particularly well-articulated expression of this, an apparent dichotomy on the surface, is found in the recent Wisconsin Catholic Bishops' Letter on Immigration.  So, that's my personal context.

The purpose of this post is to gather together examples and instances of when illegal immigrants were released by Oregon authorities only to re-offend--sometimes in horrific ways.  Disclosure: following this paragraph, I have employed AI.  It turns out that locating this specific information is difficult.  Several search engines and AI tools refused to cooperate--e.g., Google's Gemini.  It was as if they had protections created to avoid this kind of search; I find that disturbing.  The bottom line is that Oregon can and should do better.

1. Martin Gallo-Gallardo
In March 2018, Gallo-Gallardo, a Mexican national, was arrested in Portland on felony domestic violence charges. ICE lodged a detainer, but the Multnomah County Jail released him on bond. Seven months later, he was charged with murdering his wife, Coral Rodriguez-Lorenzo, in Clackamas County.

2. Fidel Lopez
In 2019, Lopez was convicted of sexually assaulting his fiancée's dog, leading to the animal's death. Despite an ICE detainer, the Multnomah County Jail released him after he served 60 days. ICE later apprehended him at his home.

3. Julio Gonzalez-Zamudio
A Mexican national deported four times, Gonzalez-Zamudio was arrested in Oregon in 2014 after fleeing a traffic stop with over two pounds of methamphetamine. He had prior convictions for drug offenses and violent crimes. He was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison for illegal reentry.

4. Sergio Ramos-Lopez
Deported seven times since 1988, Ramos-Lopez was arrested in Deschutes County in 2013 for trafficking methamphetamine. He had a history of drug trafficking and violent crimes. He was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for illegal reentry.

5. Johnell Lee Cleveland
Although not an illegal immigrant, Cleveland was released early from federal prison in 2020 and quickly engaged in fraud and sex trafficking. He was sentenced to nine years in federal prison in 2024.

6. Sergio Jose Martinez
Martinez, a Mexican national deported over 20 times, was released from Multnomah County Jail in 2017 despite an ICE detainer. He broke into a 65-year-old woman's home, sexually assaulted her, and attacked another woman. Sentenced to 35 years in state prison and 92 months in federal prison.

7. Sergio Martinez-Mendoza
Also known as Sergio Jose Martinez, he committed two violent sexual assaults in Portland in 2017 after multiple deportations and release from custody. Sentenced to 35 years in state prison and 92 months in federal prison. 

A Good Mission Statement is Hard to Find

Everyone and their dog are writing mission statements these days.  The problem is that they would be better off not doing so.  

A good strategy for gaining insights into a company or organization should be a careful read of its mission statement.  The problem is that the statements are often downright unreadable, and the meanings are ambiguous.  Some organizations seem to view it as an opportunity to pull out their handy DEI Terms for Idiots.  For other entities, though, it's as if the mission statement has become a kind of confessional where, by simply alluding to particular ideas or images, their actual perspective or ulterior motives become clear.  The writing quality can definitely convey quite a bit about the organization tht brought it to the page.  A good example of a somewhat lousy mission statement is found at Oregon Housing and Community Services.  In case you're unfamiliar with the agency, this organization has seen controversies erupt over its inept handling of grants and awards for those it serves.  Whether it's its backlogs or its sobering audits, it has not been a stellar example of competent customer service for Oregonians.

That's part of the reason why a phrase in its mission statement caught my eye and gave me pause a few years ago. Let's examine it in its entirety, with the sections of concern highlighted.

Our Vision
All Oregonians have the opportunity to pursue prosperity and live free from poverty.

Our Mission

We provide stable and affordable housing and engage leaders to develop an integrated statewide policy that addresses poverty and provides opportunities for Oregonians.

What we do

Oregon Housing and Community Services is Oregon's housing finance agency, providing financial and program support to create and preserve opportunities for quality, affordable housing for Oregonians of lower and moderate income.


OHCS administers programs that provide housing stabilization – from preventing and ending homelessness, assisting with utilities to keep someone stable, to financing multifamily affordable housing, to encouraging homeownership. It delivers these programs primarily through grants, contracts, and loan agreements with local partners and community-based providers, and has limited direct contact with low-income beneficiaries. OHCS' sources of funds are varied and include federal and state resources that have complex regulatory compliance requirements, and thus stewardship, compliance monitoring, and asset management are all critical functions played by OHCS.

The first highlight is not such a big deal, but it feels a tad sloppy.  For instance, why is it necessary to refer to income levels at all here?  Why not simply say something along the lines of qualifying Oregonians?  The third highlighting of to just reinforces the idea that this was not written with a great deal of care.

The third highlight is more the concern.  It has limited direct contact with low-income beneficiaries?  You don't say.  Well, okay, first, why is this admission so critically important to refer to within the context of their statement? Maybe in the applications or the associated staff procedures, but this seems an example of someone misunderstanding the broad purpose of the mission statement.  Second, the use of contact with the low-income beneficiaries suggests something negative.  Do they wish to avoid contact?  Is it because this somewhat derisive or condescending phrase actually betrays their mindset?  One wonders.

I had the opportunity a few years ago to raise this point of language with a few of the communications staff. One younger employee clearly got it, understanding the problematic nature of this phrase, but the others seemed completely oblivious. It's unfortunate that poor writing can reflect so poorly on the agency staff and its authentic mission and goals.

So, what are your favorite examples of terrible mission statements?

  

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien Remembered

 

I am reading Tolkien's letters as well as a book offering a fresh look at the Inklings entitled The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Pavlac Glyer. The letters, in particular, convey a wonderful sense of who Tolkien was outside his work as a scholar and professor. Daily life accounts provide poignant insight into this complex figure.



With all of this reading on Tolkien and Lewis, it recently occurred to me that I should create a short video concerning our visits to the gravesites of these two great authors. I decided to include two sections about Cambridge and Oxford. All featured photos are culled from my images from two different trips to the UK.

Despite the fact that Tolkien was not particularly impressed by the bard, I decided to use incidental music from Shakespeare's plays for the first two featured music tracks.  This is followed by a poor recording of mine from Tolkien's parish, St. Aloysius Catholic Church. (For an interesting article on Tolkien and the Catholic Church, see here.) The home shared towards the end of the video is where Tolkien and his wife resided for many years in Oxford. We visited Sandfield Rd as my sister-in-law and her husband lived across the street for some time.  The person speaking for about a minute while we are walking is my brother-in-law.

I hope you enjoy this brief view from the UK! I'm concluding this with Tolkien's letter to his daughter a few days after the death of his friend as well as a compilation video I found on YouTube of Tolkien video.  My short video is at the bottom of the page.

To Priscilla Tolkien [Written four days after the death of C. S. Lewis.] 26 November 1963

Dearest, Thank you so much for your letter. . . . . So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man of my age – like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots. Very sad that we should have been so separated in the last years; but our time of close communion endured in memory for both of us. I had a mass said this morning, and was there, and served; and Havard and Dundas Grant1 were present. The funeral at Holy Trinity, the Headington Quarry church, which Jack attended, was quiet and attended only by intimates and some Magdalen people including the President. Austin Farrer read the lesson. The grave is under a larch in the corner of the church-yard. Douglas (Gresham)2 was the only ‘family’ mourner. Warnie was not present, alas! I saw Owen Barfield, George Sayer and John Lawlor3 (a good mark to him), among others. Chris. came with us. There will be an official memorial service in Magdalen on Saturday at 2.15 p.m. It was very sweet of you my dearest to write. . . . . God bless you. Daddy.

Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition (p. 478). (Function). Kindle Edition. 

    

Telework...Is it for the Dogs?

 

For nearly the last three decades, my employer has tended to swing like a pendulum to one side or the other of the current business trends.  When not busily exploring required change management or DEI lessons, I remember being told at length why teleworking would never work for state government; that didn't last so long.  I get it... Many aspects of teleworking are super convenient.  You save money on parking and commuting costs and even get a little more sleep to boot.  If you have personal errands, they are much easier to do on breaks.  This may be a critical perk if you need to care for a loved one.  The list goes on.

There is a downside, though.  There is a loss of connection with colleagues.  You may also run into situations where, there often being a written record now of even the most spontanious question, casual bouncing off of ideas and processes becomes effectively discouraged.  Where you might have wandered down a couple of cubicles and brainstormed a problem with a colleague, it may become a little more complicated for some of us to do that today.  Another element for me is learning and development.  Back when I began new roles, one thing that always helped me was to listen to my colleagues, and sometimes my colleagues did likewise.  We all learned from each other.  I learned to tailor my phone conversations based, in part, on some of the great people with whom I worked closely; I patterned some of my techniques after their effective practices.  This kind of thing becomes a bit difficult for the teleworker.

There are always other ways to improve one's work, of course, but losing that feedback loop from one's colleagues can prove a negative.  Sitting day after day in one's empty house can also prove to be a tad isolating.  How would the employer who accepts teleworking take steps to make it a healthier environment for all its workers?  I don't think the answer is to necessarily drop it in its entirety, but it seems if there were more opportunities to come together as a workplace or unit, it would be a good thing.  (And don't subtly discourage it by requiring the use of leave time to attend.)  Let's face it: Teams is great (I guess), but it is no replacement for face-to-face communication where relationships are built and strengthened.  In a day and age where so much of our lives represents a "connection illusion," creating a virtual workplace seems to betray a certain ignorance of human nature.  If you peruse the internet for information and studies on the darker side of teleworking, there is a lot out there to read.  Many studies have been conducted in this area, and I am sure many more are underway.  Some of the negative observed consequences are interesting.  From a blurred separation of home and work to isolation, telework isn't necessarily all it is cracked up to be.

I am thankful that I am not beginning my career with this professional experience to look forward to for decades to come.  Looking back on the memorable office times- the laughter and the shared sorrows- these were spent in the presence of other human beings and not isolated in a house miles away from colleagues who oftentimes became friends.

 

Reviewing the Seestar S50 Smart Telescope

When I purchased the Seestar S50 last March 2024, I had high hopes, and initially, the telescope met or exceeded these expectations. As a nature photographer, I enjoy photographing new things. However, astrophotography always proved difficult. I was seeking something I could remove from the box and, after some initial setup, immediately target the desired object—whether that object was within or without our solar system.  At first, the telescope worked as described. I could set it up, which includes calibration of the compass, adjusting the level, and syncing to iPhone, and then instruct it to Go to the Moon. It went off with some pretty satisfying results. Even without photo stacking, the quality was a notch or two above acceptable, but not high resolution.  

Then, the updates began. As soon as Seestar began sending updates, the problems started.  The first issue became an inability to go to the moon.  The telescope would go to within .01% of the location and stop.  If one gave up and canceled the mode and tried manually navigating to the moon, it would appear much like the sun without the appropriate filtering.  I tried reporting the issue, and Seestar support was quite awful, acting as if this was an entirely new issue for them.  Of course, I knew from my Facebook Seestar groups that this was a known bug resulting from a bad update.  Seastar demanded screenshots, reported tax liabilities, personal secrets, etc.; you get the idea. They were not the picture of cooperation and helpfulness they liked portraying themselves as.

So, to add insult to injury for purchasers of this $500 bunch of optics and chips, Seestar decides to send additional updates before fixing this problem.  While this update includes “cute” starfield effects, sadly nothing remotely helpful to address the prior issue.  Meanwhile, I learned a workaround in one of the FB groups by which you can go to a deep space item first and then successfully go to the moon. I have no idea why this usually works, but it does.  Still, instead of having the equivalent of a new car with all the bells and whistles, it’s feeling more and more like a Vega.

The next issue developed with yet another update. I didn’t even recognize it until others mentioned it; I assumed it was the cold. The telescope’s visual output goes dark after about half an hour of viewing. Again, this may be a temporary issue addressed with a future update or a convoluted workaround. Still, as of right now, it seems yet another user stumbling block to enjoying the purchased product.

It's an interesting (modern) problem in that today's unit is not the same machine it was described as when purchased; it has been fundamentally altered by incompetent user updates—error built upon error, rushed to production. On a side note, ZWO, a Chinese company, manufactures this telescope. If you’re anything like me, you’re trying to avoid buying goods from China and instead opt for US or European options.

So, what do Seestar S-50 owners do with a telescope that seems incompetently supported? One thing is for sure: I would steer clear of any other products from this company, particularly until they demonstrate competence in updating all their product lines.

Update: One lesson I recently learned about this telescope was the importance of shutting down and completely recalibrating after each move from one part of the property to the next--even on the same night.  Doing this last time seemed to improve performance quite a bit.