Rest in peace, 510-MIRTH18.  You no longer have East Bay guardians to neglect you.  I’m sorry to report that we weren’t able to cull the last several messages and post them, because the Comcast website wasn’t letting us log in for unfathomable reasons.  Perhaps we’ll get the Comcast Triple Play in Baltimore, but until that uncertain event, I don’t know where you people should call to leave great audio posts and belated wedding toasts.

Due to administrative oversight, our registration for our other domain, fuckshitup.net, expired and has been taken over by porn-mongering domain-sitters.  It kind of sucks, because we lost all the crap that used to be there.  But on the other hand, there wasn’t really much stuff of value there - it being crap and all.  If you are interested in enjoying another of our other unserious domain purchases, I am happy to direct you here.

Also, due to laziness, we have a backlog of MIRTH18 calls to post.  Here’s a glut of them, all at once: from March 3, March 18, March 30, and May 10.

Saturday was gorgeous out, 81 degrees and sunny here in Berkeley. Jon was coding all day, and I got struck with a craving for sun tea. I’ve heard so much enthused clamoring about sun tea from various folks in the know, so while I’ve never had it, I was totally convinced that it was going to be delicious and awesome.

Of course, I’d never made it before, so before I embark on doing anything new, I always check out what the Oracle has to say about it. I found some basic instructions, which confirmed the basic idea I already had in my head. But I also found this: a Snopes page on dangerous bacteria in sun tea (Snopes is, of course, a trusted source in my life, perhaps even surpassing Wikipedia). So apparently, (and common-sensically obviously) the warm, moist environment in your sun tea-making jar is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. But I was determined not to be thwarted from my plan. I made sure the jar in question was washed vigorously with warm, soapy water, etc.

(This jar, by the way, is ovoid. I walked over to the local Crate & Barrel outlet store and got it for six bucks. I think it is the only place in walking distance that might sell a mason jar-esque vessel.)

So this is all it took: four bags of Twinings Lemon-Spiced Tea, cold water, a couple sprigs of fresh mint. I left it out for three hours in the sun, then brought it in when it was ready-looking (honey-colored), then sweetened with sugar and enjoyed.

Tomorrow, Jon’s got an intramural softball game, which I cleverly figured out is the perfect opportunity to bake a ton of cupcakes and offload most of them before I develop diabetes. I’ve never actually had Magnolia’s (in)famous cupcakes before, but I’ve certainly heard a lot about them. Luckily, Food Network’s got Magnolia’s recipe for vanilla cupcakes online, so I tried making my own.

The cupcakes came out beautifully; they are perhaps the most gorgeous cupcakes I’ve ever baked. Perfect round domes and fluffy. Not dry, and not too sweet. Sweetness comes in elsewhere - the ridiculous frosting.

The frosting was absurdly sweet, and runny. I put in almost two whole boxes of confectioner’s sugar (one pound/a little less than 4 cups each) before I decided I couldn’t bear to put in any more. I used 1% milk, so perhaps if I had used whole milk instead it would have whipped up better. I couldn’t find my pastry bag, so the frosting just got slathered on. Not the prettiest cupcake, but still delicious.

Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcake (from Food Network)

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extractIcing:
Vanilla Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Vanilla Buttercream:
The vanilla buttercream we use at the bakery is technically not a buttercream but actually an old-fashioned confectioners’ sugar and butter frosting. Be sure to beat the icing for the amount of time called for in the recipe to achieve the desired creamy texture.1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Yield: enough for 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 (9-inch) layer cake

Hunter calls in from the Capital of the Confederacy to alert us about the collision of two paradigms of phone-button-mashing.

A dispatch from New York that slipped through the cracks somehow (in our defense, our cable services were misbehaving lately - blame Comcast!). Apologies to everybody for the extreme tardiness - this was called in on February 3, on the eve of Super Bowl XLI, an event certainly worthy of two and a half minutes of audio commentary.

Actually, not the Mooninites themselves (which are simply the bomb [via Boing Boing]), but the Mooninite-makers.  Here is the money quote from the AP article (emphasis added):

“It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme,” Mayor Thomas Menino said Wednesday. “I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents.”

Berdovsky, an artist, told The Boston Globe he was hired by a marketing company and said he was “kind of freaked out” by the furor.

“I find it kind of ridiculous that they’re making these statements on TV that we must not be safe from terrorism, because they were up there for three weeks and no one noticed. It’s pretty commonsensical to look at them and say this is a piece of art and installation,” he said.

Also, officials described the lightboards as “consistent with an improvised explosive device“, which is the most absurdly terror-mongering use of language I’ve heard in a long time.  What electronic device, then, isn’t consistent with an IED?

Some background and the interesting links roundup: the marketing campaign was thought up by Interference, Inc., whose website was blank when I visited, although the Google search result says: “A nationwide guerilla and alternative marketing agency from idiation [sic] through tactile implementation and staffing. Includes company profile, definition of…“.  One of the arrested artists, Peter Berdovsky’s web site is Zebbler.com [also via Boing Boing], although it isn’t working as of right now.  Here’s a video of the campaign in action.  As is to be expected, Boing Boing was helpful in clarifying the mistaken connections with the Graffiti Research Lab and Make, and if you have time to scroll through the hundreds of Metafilter comments, there’s some good stuff there too (like this similar, Mario-inspired incident in 2006).

If you live in a major city, go get one!  Like this guy (who is a student, and does not appear to be an AP photog, as Joe Malchow may want you, for some reason, to believe), or other folks in San Francisco.  They’re also up in Philadelphia and more obvious (and in neon) in New York, Austin and Los Angeles, it seems.  One “LED Advertising Bomb” is on Ebay for $5,101 as I type.

Clearly, the outrage here is not the actual advertising project itself, but the response.  I think it calls for a decentralized campaign for the proliferation of digital public art/advertising.  Here are simple instructions for the GRL’s LED throwies, and their night writers.  I have yet to see step-by-step instructions for making the mooninites themselves, but they don’t seem super complicated once you’ve got your ingredients and have covered the basics on wiring your LEDs.

Isn’t it true, if one listed one’s googlewhacks verbally, for example, via the MIRTH18 line and then posted on the net, that one could record and distribute them without un-whacking them?

There might be some indexing problems - but I think those things could be overcome.

Clint, clearly angling for the title of #1-most-prolific MIRTH18-contributor, has phoned in to offer a correction. I hope this clears up a few things for our faithful listeners.

Another thought-provoking audio contribution from the hallowed halls of Columbia Journalism School; this time, from the mystery man with the 949 area code (EGL commonality).  The caller, who apparently has hit the housing jackpot by scoring roommate status with Clint “Usually good company” Hendler, offers his observations on the Ivy League, and a chilling prediction for the future!