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The Best of Beethoven
At dinner this evening, Rocky’s daughter reminded her father that he’s been promising to buy her a CD with all nine Beethoven symphonies — for months. Rocky’s a terrible procrastinator. Especially when it comes to spending money.
Admittedly, some kids want iPads. And some kids want new cars. And other kids want a shopping trip to Abercombrie & Fitch. Rocky’s daughter wants the complete symphonic works of Beethoven, which is both financially much less demanding and slightly amusing.
But — it’s not so simple. There are actually more Beethoven recordings than Baskin & Robbins’ ice cream flavors…
There’s Von Karajan — with his iconic 1963 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic (digitally remastered so only one’s hair dresser knows for sure that it’s actually analog. )
And there’s Leonard Bernstein. With his “idiosyncratic” 1960′s recording with the New York Philharmonic.
And there’s John Eliot Gardiner with a 2010 recording by the Orchestre Revoltionnaire et Romantique. (but that sounds FRENCH. Ugh!)
And the list goes on and on and on and on….Amazon has dozens of choices … Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony, etc etc etc.
[Disclosure: Rocky picked the Von Karajan Deutsche Grammaphon recording, and purchased it from a vendor who undercut Amazon's price! P.S. Rocky's daughter has no relation to Linus.]
How to maintain an edge (in trading & in brownies)
Rocky always looks for an “edge” in his market speculations, but rarely finds one.
In contrast, Rocky always looks for an “edge” in his brownies, and often finds one. As any brownie aficionado knows, the crispy, chewy edges are the best part of a brownie. Rocky’s technique is to cut the crispy, delicious edge from around an entire brownie pan, and leave the gooey middle bulk for lesser mortals.
This habit always drove Rocky’s daughter crazy, as she would bake a gorgeous fresh pan of brownies — and return to find all of the crust surgically removed and only mutilated innards remaining.
Rocky’s daughter gave her dad a birthday present that solved the problem: The Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan. This cleverly designed pan has a maze shape, so that every brownie has a chewy, crispy edge. Rocky thought the invention to be brilliant and dubbed it “his best birthday present ever.” (Except for the birthday when Trophy Wife rented a full-size excavator for a day, and Rocky and his friends dug some holes for fun.)
Here’s the amazon.com link to the brownie pan:
[Disclosure: The first batch of brownies was magnificent. Every brownie had two crispy/chewy edges, and some brownies had three edges!]
