Health and Diet Scottish Recipes Ferret for Ferrets


[pf] from the ... (or at least philosophical) to the ridiculous.
by David MacClement
02 December 2000 01:24 UTC

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· From talking about eastern trees vs. tall-grass and crosstimbers, to
making a pot of tea!

· I like seeing bigger implications in little things.

· An hour ago, I started making my last pot of tea for the day (after the
tea at ~1:30 p.m. I use only cocoa or non-caffeine herbal tea), and went
around the other two living here just now (our daughter's living with her
Swiss boyfriend who's here in NZ on a few weeks' visit), asking whether
they wanted some tea.

· I would then put into the pot, one heaped teaspoon for each of the others
and a half-teaspoon for me. (We use loose tea. Does anyone else on the list?)
 Leave it to steep for 3-4 minutes and then say: "tea's ready!"

· That's the deterministic, decided-beforehand approach.

· Ruth tells me that in China (presumably using full-leaf green tea) they
do things differently. I'm only commenting on one aspect: they have the
leaves in the pot, then pour on boiling water, and within not many seconds
pour it all out into the (tiny) china cups of those "drinking tea
together". Then pour on more boiling water.

· Not many minutes later, the second round of tea is poured out. I believe
there's at least one more round after that.

· My point is that if one was to do that here, the method could accommodate
an unexpected late addition to the group without noticeable effect - the
tea would be just a little weaker, but the method is quite flexible, in
contrast with the deterministic method I use: asking around first and
waiting for full-strength before pour-out.

· So if you want or need predictability, as I think traditionalists do,
things have to be decided in advance, you "know what's right", and change
causes upset, ruckshuns.
  But if you choose to aim at being more flexible when changes, shocks come
along, you should design your actions in the knowledge that the unexpected
/will/ happen (at least some of the time); and you should re-examine the
"hard parts" in your mind, the fossilized "this is how it is" bits of your
thinking, adding the thought: "maybe that's not all there is to it; maybe
that's not totally right" to each of them.

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz