the reason my cat freaks out over mint is that it and catnip are both in the same family.

I'm a little skeptical about that, just because the mint family incudes thousands of species, including most of the common herbs (mint, basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme, lavender, savory, rosemary, sage... all mints). So, if that were the reason, why just those two?

I feel like baking. What should I bake, bread or cupcakes? The cupcakes are easier and faster and yum, but I'm trying to be healthy. The bread is actually also pretty good -- the recipe calls for some leftover cooked grains, and I usually use rice, since that's what I have around, and the rice I have now is rice I cooked with saffron, and that makes really good bread. But if I make cupcakes, then I can bring them into the office and be Vegan Propaganda Girl tomorrow.

It's too hard to decide. Make both.

I'm a little skeptical about that, just because the mint family incudes thousands of species, including most of the common herbs (mint, basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme, lavender, savory, rosemary, sage... all mints). So, if that were the reason, why just those two?

It seems like the most logical explanation for why my cat tries to cram her head in my mouth after I brush my teeth.

Nah, the reason she stuffs her head in your mouth is that she wants to eat your nummy tonsils. She just waits until you have good breath to do it, because ewww.

I should tell her that I had my tonsils removed when I was four....

P-C, that guy! With the tattoos! Who understands about Indian people getting grumpy about being called Pakistani! And who once chauffered another brown person from a different continent!

flails

...dude. I have no words. But I anticipate seeing you appear on Youtube, at least, if not on the actual telly, because surely to God he cannot have been for real?

And also - OMG, cilantro is just another word for coriander?

FINALLY I can weigh in on this timeless Buffista debate!

Coriander = yum.

There we are. All settled now.

And also - OMG, cilantro is just another word for coriander?

Was I right about them both being called coriander in the UK? Here, we use it two ways -- grind up the seeds as a spice, and eat the plant as an herb -- and the seeds are called coriander, but the herb is cilantro. Both are coriander in the UK?

(On one of my trips to Israel, after we'd been having the cilantro debate and Nilly hadn't been able to find the word in the dictionary and didn't know what we were talking about, I saw some in a grocery store and copied down the Hebrew label for it to give to Nilly when I saw her. Turned out she'd already figured it out, from a better dictionary. But the Hebrew is kusbara! It's fun to say.)

P-C, that guy! With the tattoos! Who understands about Indian people getting grumpy about being called Pakistani! And who once chauffered another brown person from a different continent!

We figured he had to be mentally ill or on drugs. There is just no fathoming a sober man in possession of his full mental faculties behaving that way.

Yes, we don't call anything cilantro in the UK. It's just coriander, and coriander seeds.

I think it's going to take a while for my head to accept that cilantro is NOT a mysterious American thing.

For a long time, when I was little, I had this theory that "candy" referred to something specific. In fact (...possibly because it starts with 'ca') I sort of wanted it to refer to something like Caramac, which is a substance with the texture of chocolate and the taste of caramel.

I was bemused, and rather cheated, to discover it just meant sweets. It had this whole glamorous, exotic, American air to it. Candy.

Cilantro. It's just coriander. Huh.

tries to adjust thinking.