How to run codeobjects in Python?

[Alex Martelli]

"Peter Hansen" <peter at engcorp.com> wrote in message
news:3B50716F.2A9C12CA at engcorp.com...
    ...
> What kind of water is just right?  I've lived in Guelph, Ontario,
> much of my life, where the water is extremely hard but very
> little treated and so relatively devoid of mystery chemicals.
> Pray tell, where must I go for the water I need to improve
> the state of my pasta?  Will only bottled Italian water combine
> in the right way with the One True Durum Wheat? :-)

Bologna has very hard water too, alas (we get very pretty
'calanchi' in the nearby hills, but then we get to drink and
wash with the calcium escavated away by rainwater to
form those pretty forms:-), so most everybody drinks
bottled water, and those who care also use it for many
cooking tasks -- but I'll admit that, to the best of my
knowledge, that doesn't extend to cooking ordinary (hard)
pasta (it _might_ matter for freshly made egg-based pasta,
but you're not likely to get that anyway in Ontario, I fear --
it doesn't travel well...!).  Since it's important to use very
abundant amounts of water when cooking pasta, the price
of what is still a very cheap dish would skyrocket if that
abundant water had to be costly bottled mineral water.

One thing that has basically disappeared from Italian
usage since Goethe wrote admiringly about it a couple
centuries ago is the idea of cooking ordinary pasta in
broth (then after straining it, season it with nothing but
lots of grated cheese, since it's savoury enough not to
need any sauce).  Fresh egg-based pasta IS still often
cooked in broth, though (tortellini in particular, one of
Bologna's most famous specialties, really need to be
cooked in _chicken_ soup to be perfect).  But not
spaghetti or other kinds of hard-pasta.

I'm desperately straining to think of some Python
related hook to avoid this being woefully OT, but am
miserably failing, so I apologize to all non-pasta eaters
in the audience...:-(


Alex