The Simple Application of Heat, Yuppy Grocery Stores, and Geek Babes!

So cooking class was pretty much a bust again.
Tonight’s emphasis was on meat and the effective use of marinades.
Because there are some time constraints in the class, basically the teacher just stopped at Wegman’s and picked up some cuts of meat that had already been marinated. She talked a little about the different kinds of meats and how some really absorb flavors while others don’t, and you want to be careful what you marinade them in based on those considerations.
Then each group just grabbed some meat and cooked it via various methods (broiling, frying, roasting).
Once that was done, which was fairly early, class was over.
So, once again, no pictures, as I didn’t see any reason to photograph some chicken that I did nothing other than apply some heat to until it was no longer pink inside. I might as well have just thrown it in the microwave.
As an aside about Wegman’s, one of their stores opened near where I live a while back. During its grand opening week I went in to check it out. I found it to be too big and too…well, I thought it was sort of pretentious. It’s very much a grocery store for Yuppies.
Really, it was just too much.
So as I was leaving, without having purchased anything, I thought, “I’ll never shop here again.”
However, there was a group of women leaving at the same time (with full carts), and one of them said, to universal agreement, “I’ll never shop anywhere else.”
I just found it funny to see such an obvious example of how entirely counter my thinking runs to the thinking of most other people.
But whatever.
It was kind of funny that tonight’s cooking class focused on marinating, as right before I left I put some meat in the refrigerator to marinate overnight, as tomorrow I’m making a Korean dish called, bulgoki, bol go gi, or something similar, depending on the source. I think the particular recipe I’m following uses the second spelling.
Basically all that’s involved in preparing it is slicing up some beef and letting it marinate in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, green onions, and crushed sesame seeds overnight, then cooking it. I usually cook it in my wok, but it can also be grilled or broiled. Then you just serve it with vegetables (I go with carrots and broccoli) and rice.
We used to have it for lunch every so often at work, but the restaurant that we got it from closed down a while back, so that’s why I decided to find a recipe for it.
Apart from preparing the marinade, I spent much of the day reading Jack T. Chick tracts and reviews of them, and watching some more episodes of “Wonderfalls,” which I’ve been enjoying a great deal.
Some of you may recall that a while back I wrote an entry about Red Sonja.
In it, I made reference to writer/artist Wendy Pini, who, back in the 70s, used to dress up as Sonja at comic book conventions.
I also pointed out that Wendy Pini is the wife of Richard Pini, whom I referred to as something like the “luckiest comic book geek in the world.”
I said this not only because he was married to a total babe who looked hot in a chain mail bikini, but because Wendy was much more than that. She was a total babe who looked hot in a chain mail bikini who was also into comic books (BTW, that's the best picture I've been able to find of Wendy Pini as Sonja. Sorry.).
After all, there are plenty of attractive women who show up at conventions dressed as Vampirella, or Lara Croft, or in costumes that have at least tenuous connections to the comic book and fantasy world, but a lot of them are models who are getting paid to do it.
Wendy Pini showed up as Sonja because she loved comic books. In fact, she and Richard got to know each other after she wrote a letter that was published in an issue of “Silver Surfer.” So not only did she read comics, she felt strongly enough about them to actually write letters.
The idea of the “geek babe,” like Wendy Pini, is one of the most cherished notions of geeks everywhere. Somewhere deep in his fanboy heart (and that’s the only part of fanboy anatomy we’re going to discuss here) is a longing to meet a hot chick who’s into the same things that he’s into.
And I don’t mean a woman who indulges him his hobbies, or even half-heartedly joins in. No, I mean a woman who’s just as much of a geek as he is, independently of his interests.
So that’s the “geek” part.
As for the “babe” part, well, that pretty much speaks for itself. After all, geek or not, he’s no fool. When a geek looks for his female equivalent, he doesn’t actually want his female equivalent…
In any case, it’s long been my contention that the “geek babe” is nothing more than a pipe dream. A myth. An urban legend.
In fact, you may recall that I recently wrote another entry mentioning Wendy Pini, this time talking about an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent which featured a storyline involving a female con artist who preyed on various geeks by pretending to be a geek babe.
But real geek babes? Nowhere to be found.
However, yesterday I received an e-mail from a woman who had stumbled across Threshold in the course of seeking out information on Red Sonja. She read about my belief that geek babes don’t exist and wanted to dispute it.
In an odd coincidence, the reason this woman, whose name is also Wendy, which makes it an even odder coincidence, was looking up information on Red Sonja was that she actually dresses as Sonja at conventions as part of an act.
She wanted to set me straight and let me know that for the record there are a lot more geek babes out there than I ever imagined.
So I stand corrected. The myth of the geek babe is, in fact, true, and here are some pictures that Wendy was kind enough to share with me to prove it:


She-Devil with a Sword


Sonja and Friend


Sonja saving the High Priestess of Ishtar from the evil Wizard

So here we see clear evidence that Geek Babes really do exist (and the photos aren't blurry like pictures of the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot).
As a geek, I can't help but be pleased by this new discovery, so my thanks go out to Wendy for the e-mail and the pics (and for providing me material for this and future Threshold entries).