Cheese is without a doubt my favorite food, so I was psyched when Shannon took us to the cheese-making class.  Shannon listed her take-aways yesterday, but she overlooked a few things.

1. Cheese (according to our teacher, whose expertise, while genuine, seemed possibly inflated) predates recorded history.  The first written record is in Egyptian Hieroglyphics and recounts a traveler who filled his drinking pouch, made of animal intestine, with milk.  The jostling on his journey, combined with the rennet living in the intestines, produced curd.  Patrick declares that such an individual had to be male because only a male would simply chug milk without sniffing it and only a male would, after tasting something rather questionable, immediately seek out his friends and force it upon them.
2. The Arabic word for cheese is “mish.”  The Arabic word for apricot is “mish mish.”  The etymology involved here intrigues the hell out of me.  It makes me think of English Wensleydale all stuffed with dried fruits.
3. Mozzarella, when newly made and still wet, is shockingly easy to tie in knots. I’m
   

   The bowline, as you might remember from your BSA Field Guide, is useful because while under a heavy load it neither slips nor binds.

   talking you can tie a loop and freely pull each end in opposite directions and the cheese slides together as easily as any kind of modern rope made of pulp and plastic fibers.  Here, I have demonstrated this fact by tying a bowline, one of the classic Boy Scout knots.  Yeah, man, I still know that stuff.

4. New York is the dairy capital of the States.  Who knew?  Most of that production used to come from family-owned farms upstate.  And then Nestle showed up.  Way to go, Capitalism.
5. Tasting your new cheese can end up looking like you’re hitting a crack pipe.
6. Relatively anonymous-tasting Cabernet is a fine accompaniment to cheese making.  Our bottle originated in Abruzzi (or Abruzzo), a region about halfway down the eastern flank of Italy’s boot.  This got me thinking about other examples of Abruzzi in my life, namely Dave, Pearl Jam’s best drummer.
   

   You were awesome, Dave Abruzzese. Not even Matt Cameron is up to snuff when it comes to the songs on "Vs".

He was too into it all, so they canned him. C'est dommage.