Lane Kiffin and Sourdough Bread
Have you ever tried baking sourdough bread? A few weeks ago, while visiting a relative in South Carolina, I had a slice of sourdough that made me want to get into the sourdough game. After all, I am an accomplished chef—comfortable in the kitchen making pretty much anything. How hard can it be to mix flour and water?
I quickly fell into a sourdough wormhole on social media and started following the helpful accounts of people such as The Sourdough Nerd. Aside from flour and water, turns out you need something called “a starter,” which is basically a living slurry of flour and water, along with wild yeasts and bacteria. Where do you get that? Well, you can make it, or you can buy a dehydrated version online. (I purchased a starter from France that is purportedly 225 years old. I guess it could also be a few weeks old and made in Cordova. Who really knows?) I got new batteries for my digital scale and spent time each day patiently tending to my starter — feeding it, weighing it, stirring it.Â
Once my starter was sufficiently rejuvenated, I spent two days laboring over the loaf of bread — mixing, proofing, folding, shaping, bulk fermenting, folding again, shaping again. Eventually, I was allowed to put the thing in the oven. About an hour later, I had a loaf of sourdough bread.
After waiting ANOTHER HOUR for the bread to cool down, I finally cut into it and found that it was… ok. Tasted like sourdough bread, but it wasn’t as airy or light as I had hoped. It was a little burned on the bottom, and the exterior wasn’t quite the burnished mahogany tone I was aiming to reach.
Exactly one week ago, I sat down to write this newsletter and found myself focusing on Lane Kiffin and LSU, who had apparently narrowly avoided getting kicked out of the SEC by agreeing to go along with the guidelines they had previously agreed to abide by, in a situation involving a few football players attempting to reverse-matriculate from the NFL back to college.
The whole episode felt petulant and unseemly, which wasn’t anything new for LSU or Kiffin. They embraced the chaos they were causing, urged on by their fans, boosters and even folks like the governor of Louisiana. Rules? Heck, those were always only suggestions, ideas that may or may not actually apply to us.
In many ways, it all seemed to mirror where we are right now as a society. Don’t like something? File a lawsuit. Threaten someone. Go on social media and complain. I’ll have it my way, or else.
As soon as Kiffin and LSU backed down over the pros-to-college conundrum, they stepped right into a fresh mess. This week, LSU is preparing for Kiffin’s return to Oxford, Mississippi by filing an injury report listing their high-priced quarterback, Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt, as “doubtful.” As ESPN’s Pete Thamel noted, “no one on the Ole Miss staff” thinks the injury report is “sincere”.
I like the word “sincere” which suggests something other than just a lie. That’s because more than anything, it feels like Kiffin is once again thumbing his nose at the guidelines, the same way he did at Ole Miss. I don’t like the way you have asked me to do things, so I will complain and push back in any way that I can. Look, look at me! I deserve different rules than everyone else!
The whole affair is rather exhausting, to be honest. Don’t forget, all of this angst is for a coach who, after finally getting a team to the College Football Playoff, left before his team competed in the playoff. Kiffin was apparently chasing a vague platonic ideal of winning at any cost, with himself as the center of attention, and in LSU he found a place just crazy enough to hold hands and jump off that cliff alongside him.
To be fair, as sports fans, many of us are just unhinged enough to obsess over the trees instead of respecting the forest. I understand sports seasons are a journey, but I want my team to win immediately. Patience is for losers. Let’s win now!
All of this is why, as much as I didn’t like baking a loaf of sourdough bread, there’s a part of me that can’t wait to do it again. I learned that sourdough is a process. It’s temperamental and delicate. It requires patience and nuance. You must allow for failure, for learning. Your shortcomings are conspicuous, repairable only through trial and error.
I don’t know if baking sourdough is making me a better person, but it certainly seems to be reinforcing a lot of good and helpful qualities in my life. Maybe one day Lane Kiffin will find some enlightenment. Everything doesn’t always have to be about him and instant gratification. For now, though, Kiffin and LSU seem like a neat fit.
Bless their hearts.
Odds and Ends…
- I’m not much of a car racing guy, but I enjoyed this stunt with F1’s Max Verstappen racing against 100 random people in go-karts. The 30-car pile-up at the beginning was terrific…
- That’s almost as much fun as this weird sport where you try to drive a car onto a moving trailer. Made me think of “Knight Rider,” when KITT would drive up into the semi-trailer…
- Which person in Memphis is going to start an unofficial outlet of Blockbuster Video?…
- Whatever you cook to watch the big game on Saturday, make this warm potato salad for your side dish…
