December meme: a historical figure who interests me

There are still quite a few open days if you want to ask me something.

Today's prompt, from sallymn, asked for a historical figure I find especially interesting. It was hard to choose just one. On the whole I'm less interested in the personalities of history than in social, cultural, and economic history, but I'm nevertheless intrigued by Alexander the Great; Thomas More; Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; James I; Edward Carpenter; T. E. Lawrence; Michael Collins (the IRA leader during the Irish war of independence, not the astronaut); and others. (Yes, this list is all men. They're almost all English. Most of them were some shade of queer.)

My answer is not a favorite historical figure, not the one I necessarily think is most interesting overall (how could one judge?), certainly not one I think is admirable. Rather, he's the answer to the question: if I had access to a bunch of good biographies of historical figures, which one would I pick up first right now?

( Click here for the exciting answer! )

congee

It's been cold here--today's high temperature was 26F, or about -3C, which is about twenty degrees Fahrenheit colder than normal. And even though it's hardly unheard-of for it to get that cold here, most buildings are not constructed or insulated for it. *shivers*

So every day I've been coming home from work craving soup. But soup is not convenient to make after a full day's work. It finally occurred to me, though, to use my slow cooker. This morning before work I filled it with the makings of congee (rice porridge). Since I knew I wanted to use dried shrimp as a topping, I went for Thai/Vietnamese flavors rather than Chinese ones; I used rice, some chicken stock and water (probably about 3/4 water to 1/4 homemade stock, because congee is normally made with quite a light stock or even just water), a piece of lemongrass and a few lime leaves. I could probably have left out the lemongrass and lime leaves, because I couldn't taste them at all in the final product. I think they cooked so long that all the flavor cooked away.

I came home to find a slow cooker full of nice thick hot porridge, and all I had to do was prepare some toppings. I browned some raw peanuts in a little oil, then browned some dried shrimp, and chopped up some green onion. A generous amount of fish sauce (I believe I have mentioned that I really really like fish sauce?) plus some chile paste and lime juice flavored the bland congee, the toppings added some more flavor and some textural variety, and it was exactly what I was craving.

In conclusion, slow cookers are awesome. But I wish I had one where the timer was independent of the temperature setting. On mine you can cook on high for 4 or 6 hours or on low for 8 or 10 hours. But because I live at quite a high altitude, liquids in the cooker will eventually boil even on low. What I usually do is bring whatever is inside to a simmer and then switch to the "keep warm" function, which cooks most things just fine. Today, because I had to get to work, I had to set it for 4 hours on high and hope for the best. I worried quite a lot throughout the day that I would burn my dinner and/or set my apartment on fire, but it was okay.