A Primer on Persimmons

November-January is persimmon season.

There are two varieties of persimmons which are commonly available: (1) the conical Hachiya and (2) the round, flat Fuyu.

Any persimmon you buy should be be a bright deep orange color. The brighter and deeper the color, the better. It should be as free of black spots as possible.

Fuyu:
Fuyus can be eaten when they are crisp. But I think they are best when they are slightly soft, so I like to leave them out on the counter for a few days to let them soften up.

Hachiya:
The thing about Hachiyas is that they are completely inedible if they are not ripe. A ripe hachiya is *squishably* soft. It should look somewhat like an overripe tomato. Looking at a ripe hachiya, you would think that by the standards of any other fruit it was overripe. The skin should be wrinkled and a bit loose (not taut over the fruit) and the fruit itself should feel like a mass of jelly. The fruit should at a stage where you're afraid of handling it for fear that the skin will break.

This is information I could not find online. I would always buy firm taught hachiyas, wait a couple of weeks, at which it would have softened somewhat and deepened in color. It would "look" ripe to me. I think I must have discarded at least a dozen hachiyas before finally buying what looked to me like badly overripened hachiyas, which are of course perfectly ripe hachiyas.

I would recommend buying already ripe hachiyas as opposed to buying unripe ones and letting them ripen on the counter. Hachiyas seem to take a very very long time to ripen. (At least, more than 2 weeks, which is the longest I've waited).

Hachiyas are considered superior to Fuyus in flavor and I heartily agree. While Fuyus are very good, Hachiyas are absolutely divine.

The Lives of Others

Just watched "The Lives of Others." Very good anti-communist movie.

I loved watching the main character Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) more than anyone else in the movie. Intense, conscientious, and competent people are always fascinating to me. The writer and actress charcters are sexy, but somehow I didn't enjoy watching them anywhere near as much.

One thing I found somewhat unconvincing is why Wiesler is so moved by this writer/actress pair into changing his core beliefs. This is a man who has been a part of the Stasi for 20 years. He teaches a class on interrogation. He has ruthlessly "interrogated" (tortured) people. And he hasn't blinked. But all of a sudden now he begins to melt. What is it about these people that moves him? He seems to be in love with the actress. Is that the reason? Is this is the first time he has spied on arty types as opposed to "priests and peace activists," a phrase used in the movie? This great change of heart would have been more convincing if Wiesler had been young and just starting out rather than a seasoned veteran.

Another aspect of the movie which irritated me is that various arty and literary types (playwrights, directors, newspaper publishers) are portrayed as brave anti-communists. But generally most arty/literary types are far leftists and very sympathetic to communism. In the US for instance, Hollywood was full of Communists. And in fact, the hero the writer, is actually a committed socialist and state-approved playwright. It is only after a very good friend is blacklisted and commits suicide that he beings to rethink his loyalty to the regime.

Final comment is that the movie was wrapped up so very neatly, which is not a bad thing. No loose ends. The writer learns exactly the extent to which the actress snitched on him. He discovers that Wiesler had protected him, and Wiesler learns that the writer has discovered that he protected him.

It is refreshing to see a Communist era movie. Despite my fault finding, the movie was very good.