The Blackbird Whistling, or Just After*

As far as I know, Tiger was the first to record the song "Guilty," in 1971. UB40 recorded their version fifteen years later, on Labour of Love. We could talk about the obvious (or less obvious) musical changes UB40 made (or what they didn't change)--and I hope we will. Which recording do you like better?

We could also talk about communication styles.  I've heard more than one critic say that UB40 spoil the whole song by giving away the punchline, "I'm guilty," halfway through. I heard the UB40 version first, so I don't know what it would be like to have been surprised at the end of the song. I like Tiger's version better. musically, but maybe also because I admire that level of directness in personal communication. There's a lot to be said for just "getting something off your chest" (as he says), so clearly and directly that it can't be misinterpreted.

There's also something to be said for having been saying something all along, consciously or unconsciously, and only clarifying it later. In my experience, this is the more common way we express big and potentially-vulnerable-making things. We repeat our version of "guilty" (or whatever the big thing is) as a back-up vocal in our interactions. Most of us, I think, give ourselves away, most of the time without knowing we're doing so. But I also think that what we have to say still works as a punchline, once we finally get it out more directly, because other people don't know what it is we're trying to tell them. The potential problem here is that it can take a long time to build up to the punchline, and sometimes we just don't get to it.

If you're in an interpersonal or a communication rut, you could think about what you keep saying, or getting off your chest, or not, and how that's going. Which style works better for you?

If you're in a food rut, you could try a culinary equivalent. Some flavors come in suddenly with a kind of taste-bud bang that can't be ignored, while some accumulate gradually. Here is a very simple salad dressing recipe made with these two kinds of flavors. Raw garlic is sudden. You can't misinterpret it. Roasted garlic's milder, buttery taste comes through in a more blended, saying-it-all-along way. You can use this dressing on all sorts of things besides salad. You could try it on any kind of raw, steamed, baked, microwaved or stir-fried vegetable; potatoes; toast; tofu; sandwiches; fish; cranberry sauce.

Let me know which version you like better, and what you put it on. In fact, I challenge you--especially those who've said you're in a food rut--to use this dressing five different ways.

I put mine on a salad of celery, watermelon radish, roasted beets, roasted hazelnuts, lettuce and crumbled feta cheese today.  You?

Salad dressing

1/2 of a large lemon
3/4 cup flavorful olive oil
salt to taste (start with 1/2 teaspoon)
freshly ground pepper to taste
2-4 cloves roasted garlic, mashed
1 small clove raw garlic, minced

Squeeze half a lemon into a glass or stainless steel container. You should have about 1/4C lemon juice. If you have more or less juice, it doesn't matter; you can adjust the oil. You need three times as much oil as lemon juice.

Add salt and pepper, stir briskly or whisk to emulsify, and divide into two containers. To one batch, add the mashed, roasted garlic. Add the minced raw garlic to the other batch.

Keep refrigerated.

Makes about 4 servings of each version.

Roasted garlic

You can roast any amount of garlic; once roasted and scooped out of its skin, it freezes well.

1 or more heads of garlic
olive oil

Leave the garlic heads whole and unpeeled, but, with a sharp knife, cut about 1/2 inch off the top of each head so you expose the tops of the garlic cloves. (Save the cut-off tips of the cloves to cook with another time or use them for the raw garlic version of the salad dressing.)

Put the garlic in an oven-safe dish, on a cookie sheet or on a generous piece of aluminum foil, cut-side up. Drizzle some olive oil over the top of the garlic so the oil gets down into the cloves. Be generous with the oil; you can use it later after it's been infused with roasted-garlic flavor.

Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake in a 350* oven. I find the garlic usually takes about 45 minutes to cook thoroughly, but investigate after 25 minutes, and keep checking every 10-15 minutes. It's done when the exposed tops of the cloves look slightly golden and the cloves are very soft when poked with a fork.

Let cool, and extract the cloves from the papery skin, either by squeezing gently or by using a fork or a spoon to scoop the cloves out.

Strain any oil remaining in the pan/foil. You can use this garlic-infused oil to flavor anything--it's great on potatoes and broccoli--or you can cook with it.

Keep the garlic-infused oil refrigerated, and use it withing 10 days of making it. Roasted garlic should also be kept refrigerated, or, if you can't use it within a week, frozen.

*Wallace Stevens, "Thirteen ways of Looking at a Blackbird." in part:

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.