I’m Mrs. Johnny Depp!

Tags

conservativism, cosmology, Election 2012, Entertainment, evolution, Humor, intellectuals, Johnny Depp, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, morality, NAACP, racism, Recipes, Rick Perry, wacko right wing

Oh, yes I am!

And I can prove it. More or less.

It seems that a respectable number of experimental and theoretical physicists believe that there are multiple universes. Not only that, but that there may be an infinite number of them, all of which means, that any thing that can happen, has.

Well, one thing that can happen (I know it might be a stretch but we are talking about statistical probabilities here) is that Mr. Sexy pants could fall in love with me.

Therefore, some where he has. Proved!

That also means that there is an infinite number of me’s. One of me lives in Hawaii in a gorgeous beach house. One of me is President of the US of A, or the United Planetary Association of Andromeda. The options are as they say infinite.

The Contrarian was a bit off-put by this revelation, until I reminded him that somewhere he was married to Halle Berry. That brought a grin.

The Contrarian has some “issues” with the theoretical physicists in the end though. He’s not much in favor of a time “before” time. I myself have no difficult with that concept. However we both noticed that these guys and gals do have a pretty cushy job. I mean they sit in a comfortable office, with a chalk or white board and doodle with numbers and squiggles, and then travel to nice places and sit and “think”. Often at beaches, mountain ranges, and other pleasant places.

It’s not like they ever have to prove anything. As the Rethuglians always say about anything they don’t want to help pay for: “it’s only a theory.”

Best of all, I can theorize about Johnny Depp all I want, cuz who’s to say that he doesn’t figure into some time warpy travel theory? I mean, being a theoretical physicist is so highfalutin’ that nobody can reasonably challenge my claims right? Only others of my kind. And after all, we have a mutual desire not to upset any of our apple carts.

So, I’m applying for my grant money, and hope to set up shop any day now.

♦

Hope you all had a nice labor day. Out of work laborers most assuredly did not I guess. We had a T-Bone, potato salad and some jalapeño poppers. The latter two recipes can be found at What’s on the Stove, which has it’s only little link on the side bar now.

♦

Ricky “Gosh darn this is fun” Perry is what they call “surging” in the polls. Somebody finally tapped the shyster on the shoulder and told him to act “gubernatorial” and high tail it back to TEXAS where people are losing their homes at an astounding rate due to unchecked wildfires. He’s properly “concerned” now.

Meanwhile Mitt “it’s slipping away” Romney is starting to show the wear and tear of being rejected but once again. Mr. Perpetual Runner whom nobody really likes, stares ever wide-eyed at the audience he addresses, and for all it’s worth you can hear under his breath: “can you morons understand these simple sentences?”

Yeah, actually they can Mitt, and well, they really don’t like you. Can you understand that?

♦

Noam Chomsky writes a very interesting and provocative piece in the Boston Review about the role of the intellectual in today’s murky moral world. He is prompted by the questionable action of murdering Osama Bin Laden and dumping his body at sea without trial.

It’s a most serious read, but one that will benefit you. We seldom spend the time we should thinking of the hard issues.

♦

Michele “damn you Ricky” Bachmann is shakin’ up the team. Ed Rollins is out due to “health” reasons as well as the deputy David Polyansky.

This kinda crap is usual in a campaign going down the crapper. But Michele, it ain’t gonna help. You are simply TeaNutz® lite compared to Ricky “I’m more nutz” Perry.

♦

DCMartin gives us a good old slappin’ story about racism reaction gone amuck. And she has designated herself as the “official spokesperson” for Black America, which sure makes it easy on me. 😛

Go give it a read. She’s very funny and actually makes a fine point as well. Don’t ever Pass the Doucheys. . .”

♦

I was prompted to visit a site I’ve only briefly looked at. Conservapedia. It’s the “trustworthy” encyclopedia. Isn’t that just wrong on its face? How can something that purports to be “conservative” by “trustworthy”? It’s clearly not giving truth, but a point of view.

My favorite quote from the front page is from Isaiah Berlin:

“Good government in a free society keeps positive and negative liberty in balance. These two forms of liberty are out-of-balance today.”

Now that is interesting isn’t it? I betcha some wacko TeaNutz® would have some interesting ideas of what “negative liberty” are. 

♦

From “Constant Comment”

 ♦

Hey, have you ever seen Wilfred? You should. It’s hysterical at times, frightening occasionally. It’s an import from Australia. It is not for the faint of heart. It is not for mortifiable-prone evangelicals. It’s about a dog named Wilfred, who appears as a human in a dog suit to a neighbor. Wilfred teaches lessons, and humps stuffed animals, and smokes pot by the pail full.

I thought it would be stupid. But it’s shocking, and funny at the same time. Try to find it on your TV dial. Oh crap, that dated me. TV’s don’t have dials any more.

Laters gators!

 

 

Don’t Say I Never Gave Ya Anything

Tags

appetizers, Chinese, crab Rangoon, General Tso's chicken, Recipes

Once upon a time. . .Oh that’s been done to death!

Well, at the inception of this blog, the plan was to present a diverse blend of politics, religion (you know that always makes friends!), crafting ideas, cooking, and then anything else my extraordinary brain came up with.

In other words, it was to be eclectic, which I am. My interests are unlimited, my decorating ideas run from country artisan to art deco, and that’s a pretty wide chasm. My food delights range from Italian, Mexican, to down home Americana and Chinese. I like cuisine from Egypt and India. About the only thing I don’t care much for is German food.

Anyway, lately, for about the last couple of years, we’ve been fairly limited to politics, with a bit of religious thrown in to keep it honest. Here and there I’ve dropped a recipe, but today, well I just pulled out all the stops. So those of you who could care less, fair warning, this is food oriented.

First up, I told you that we were having General Tso’s Chicken and crab Rangoon. I made them a couple of weeks ago. And they turned out very good indeed, so I thought I’d let you in on the recipe. A word about the Tso’s chicken. There are myriad recipes for this. Basically it’s to be a kind of coated breast meat and on the hot side. So here is how I did that:

General Tso’s Chicken

• 1/2 chicken breast, cut up into bitesize pieces
• 1/3 c flour
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4-5 serrano chilis (I added a minced one to the veggies)

Mix together in a bowl and add enough liquid (water or chicken stock) to make it all gooey.

In the wok, heat 1/2 c vegetable oil (give or take–none of this is rocket science).Add 4-5 chilis (the red serrano and let them sizzle until they pop and turn dark.  Add chicken pieces trying to keep them separate and brown on both sides until done. Probably about 2 minutes a side.Remove chicken pieces and continue adding and frying until all are done. Set aside.

Add whatever vegetables you want to the wok. These should have been cut up and bagged earlier.

I added:

• carrots, celery, an onion sliced, broccoli stems sliced,

Stir fry until tender but crisp. Add any sauce you like or cornstarch and chicken stock, with some soy. I  used a Teryaki sauce. Throw the chicken back in, and add three or four sliced green onions. Toss until warmed through and all is coated.

Serve over rice.

Crab Rangoon

• 8 oz fake crab or real as you prefer (I found the fake just fine for this appetizer)
• 4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 scallion chopped
• 1 medium clove garlic sliced
• pepper
• salt only if using fresh crab
• minced celery if you like
• 1 egg (or egg white) whisked
• 1 package wonton wraps ( you will use about 1/4 of them. I divide the rest into 1/4 packets and wrap in plastic and put in a freezer bag and throw in the freezer. They defrost fine)

Place everything but the egg and wrappers into a food processor and whir up until it is a paste but with visible “pieces. Scrape out into a bowl and sit down with your wrappers and egg wash. Take a wrapper, place a mounded tsp of the crab paste in the middle, with your finger dip in the egg wash and trace along two edges meeting at a tip. Draw the unwashed side over the crab and form a triangle, press out the air gently and press all the edges.

Do this until you have used up all the paste (I had about 30 or so). Place on a jelly roll pan lined with parchment, not touching each other. Place in freezer for a couple of hours until frozen hard. Place them in a freezer bag and you are done.

When you want to use them, remove as many as you wish. Heat some oil in a very small sauce pan (saves a lot of oil that way) and fry for about 1 minute or less one at a time. Golden brown is what you are looking for. Place on paper towel to drain and place in a warm place to hold until your stir fry is done. (You can bake them too, I’m guessing at about 400-425°. I’d check at 10 minutes. Remove when golden brown.

The point is these are as good as most of what you get in a Chinese restaurant and way better than any frozen kind from the grocery story. You only have to make them a couple of times a year, and frankly, its less than an hour’s worth of work anyway.

Okay, so now we move on to a few new tips I’ve managed after 61 years to finally figure out.

Given that in the winter, we shop infrequently, I alway have trouble keeping fresh vegetables fresh. Well I have some ways that finally give them a refrigerator life of a good two weeks. And that’s a lot better than usual. So here is what I learned:

Green onions: clean them within a day, cutting off the root and outer layer and cutting off the green end where you normally would. Take a paper towel and wet it, wringing it out. Wrap this around the root end of the onions and place in a tumbler glass. Cover with one of those light plastic bags you placed them in at the store. Just wrap around. Sit in refrig. Trust me…your onions neither dry out, not become all rotten.

Cucumbers and peppers: I used to wrap them in plastic wrap and they always rotted within days. Then you cut off a chunk of the rotten stuff. You end up losing about 1/2 of each. This works. Buy those cherry tomatoes or raspberries  or whatever in the plastic hard containers with slotted holes in the sides. Save them and place your unwrapped cukes and peppers in them. The cut edges dry out and are perfectly dry and unrotted for up to two weeks. As to the peppers, best to clean out the seeds at the first use.

Mushrooms: Either they became shriveled and hard or yucky slimy. Open the package and use what you need. As to the rest: throw away the plastic wrapper over the little container. Place this in a brown paper bag, close and place in fridge. They were fine two weeks later.

Happy cooking. Today we are having: Beef Stroganoff over noodles, salad and bread.

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• imabonehead: Chinese Burmese Chili Chicken | Appetite for China (appetiteforchina.com)

The Only Thing That Changes is the Window Dressing

Tags

education, GOP, middle class, poor, Recipes, religious rightwing, rich robber barons, Stupid America, tex-mex meets China, working class

The religious right-wing nuttery learned that if they put their agenda out front, it was soundly rejected. So they went stealth. They infiltrated got elected to public office in statewide and local jurisdictions, never letting out a peep of what their agenda was.

Once on school boards and in state legislatures, they began pushing their fundamentalist-based principles into our school curriculums and city ordinances.

Karl Rove (Turd Blossom) was pretty darn up front about his desire to turn America into one gigantic GOP juggernaut. That failed to.

It is now quite clear that the GOP, too, has played the magician. While keeping us distracted with the usual dog and pony show of Palin/Bachmann/Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity/Gingrich/DeMint/Huckabee/King circus act, why they went out and got themselves installed in state legislatures and governorships all around the land.

While bowing to the “teabagger” agenda of cutting all them “freeloader” programs such as Head Start and food stamps, and introducing all that right-wing “freedom” to worship and live as you wish as long as it’s “Christian” and between a man and a woman, the really ugly work is being done quietly but efficiently by true blue GOPers.

And what does that entail you ask? Nothing less than the utter reduction to slavery of the poor and working poor, the elimination of the middle class and their endless liberal leanings, and the support and coddling of the rich and wealthy.

In state after state, Repulsigans are systematically lowering taxes for the rich, cutting programs for the poor, and increasing taxes on the working and middle classes.

These immoral hard to call them humans, really believe the bastardization of Darwin’s survival of the fittest, as translated in the 19th century to mean, the worthy rise and become wealthy and powerful, and those doomed to be the rightful underclass, well, they are naturally where they are supposed to be. Married to an interpretation of the bible that then instructs the slave to be obedient, we have voila´, the natural order of things. Now that is some science and bible interpretation going hand in hand if you ever saw it!

Crooks and Liars, building upon Rachel Maddow’s show, which is embedded, shows how the GOP has lackeyed for the uber rich again, following their successes in the 2010 election. Armed with majorities and control in most legislatures, they are busy as bees. Featured are twelve states and the actions being taken to accomplish this fiendish agenda. If your state is listed, well you know what you need to do.

♦

Stoopid is as Stoopid does. That’s a saying I guess that makes some sense, but sounds more so than it actually is. And stoopid, as we’ve pointed out innumerable times, is what the American public is, by and large. Another of those polls, this time by Newsweek, proves again that the average American is amazing for its ability to walk and talk and maybe even chew gum, all the while knowing almost nothing about the world she or he lives in.

One of the things in this country that is apparently sacrosanct is the educational system. We have always, as far as I know, educated our kids based on localized school boards, supplemented marginally in many cases by a few scattered state laws. Shockingly, we learned that in some states, homeschooling is completely unregulated for instance, meaning a parent who has an IQ of dirt can “teach” their own child, and get them a bona fide “graduation” certificate.

Meanwhile, GOPers/religious fanatics around the country are forcing “balanced” teaching of creationism and intelligent design into science curriculums, revisionist history downplaying racism, American imperialism, and other “embarrassments”.

Is it time to have a serious discussion about how we teach our children? I certainly think so. I think we have to conclude that what may have once worked, no longer does. Our educational system is a failure today for most students, leaving them ill-equipped in the world they are entering, a world that requires some reasoned sophistication about the global issues that now intertwine with America. Our colleges and universities are having to spend nearly the first full year in some cases, just shoring up their freshman on the basics. My god, this was true when I went to college in the 70’s!

Weigh in and tell us what you think.

♦

What’s on the stove? Wanton pulled pork. What’z dat? Take your basic pork butt, slap some barbecue seasoning on it, lock it in a secure house, bake it at 325° until you can fork break it up into shreds. (3 hours or more) Leave it in its juices, add some of your favor-ITE barbecue sauce. Make a batch of coleslaw, a bit on the sweet side. Take some wonton wrappers, deep fry them, pressing with a spoon to make a depression, fry until crispy, drain…fill up with the pork and top with the coleslaw.. eat until you can’t walk.

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• Republican Control Of State Legislatures Brings Record Number of Creationism Bills (outsidethebeltway.com)

In Case You Care

Tags

bechamel sauce, enchiladas, GOP, Mexican food, Ohio, Recipes, unions, wacko right wing

Blitzkrieg literally means “lightning war”. It became the Nazi method of surprise attack with overwhelming force. In American terms, think “shock and awe”.

It seems to me, that the assault on public employee unions is much the same. It seems to have been a plot hatched deep in the bowels of Republican bunkers, unleashed after a favorable 2010 election cycle. Strike while the iron is hot as they say.

Republicans in state after state are facing bills introduced by lock-step following drones of the Party hierarchy, all designed to destroy the union movement in America, and thus attempt to weaken if not utterly destroy the Democratic Party who gets most of its votes.

This is all being done against the wishes of the electorate. Poll after poll, even the deeply flawed and uber right leaning arm of the GOP, the Rasmussen, says that the public is overwhelming in its support of the rights of public workers to unionize. The people are not buying the rhetoric of the right plain and simple.

They are not buying the attempts of Fox and other wacko pundits to paint the union workers as grossly overpaid, and not sharing in the pain of “everyone else.” This from the mouths of jackasses who make millions a year. They are not buying the claims that the demonstrators are largely “paid socialists and commies”. In fact Stephen Colbert caught Fox in another of its deliberate lies. It claimed with appropriate footage that demonstrators were from other states, and were “agitators”. Trouble was the agitators were wearing t-shirts and there were palm trees in the background as they marched. Not exactly Madison I’m thinking.

Nothing is too much to achieve their business currying ends. In Ohio, Republican Senate leadership, removed a fellow GOP committee member and replaced him with another GOPer. Why? Because the sitting Republican was not going to vote for their union killing bill. So they just replaced him with one who would. Yeah, that is the lengths these evil people are prepared to go. No democracy for them. No. Just blatant blitzkrieg, good old shock and awe.

***

Okay, so I try to keep my word, so here is the awesome enchilada recipe I concocted. Well, the new and revised version since I really, really don’t like Velveeta®. It’s not the taste so much, it’s the viscosity that leaves a gluey like lip smackin’ sensation. Not good.

What this recipe is designed to do is to eliminate the issue I have with traditionally baked enchiladas, namely the soggy, disintegration of the tortillas during the baking process. The sauce, just melts them away.

This is how I fixed that problem.

Sherry’s Basically Great Enchiladas

Poach a good-sized bone in chicken breast with the usual onion, celery, salt and pepper, bay leaf, until done. Or buy a roasted chicken and shred, or use some left over chicken you already have.  Set aside, cool, and debone and cube. I’d say around 3-4 cups. (Any other meat or seafood is also acceptable)

Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe bowl, place 4 oz of creamed cheese, 1 tsp each garlic and onion granules or powder, a pinch of salt, 1/3 tsp pepper, 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 2 tables fresh cilantro chopped, 1 chopped jalapeno. Microwave just long enough to make the cream cheese stir-able. 

Add chicken and loosen with a bit of milk if it’s too thick to stir easily.

Take your tortillas, flour or corn as you desire. Heat a burner (I have an electric stove, use a griddle pan if you have gas), lay each tortilla on it until it just begins to smoke, turn over and do the other side. Repeat with remaining tortillas (about 6). This leaves nice burnt bits here and there on the tortillas.

Fill the tortillas with about 2 Tbsp of the chicken. Place in a foil lined and oiled baking pan. When finished cover the pan with foil and set aside. I do this in the morning and leave them until ready to warm up for dinner. Otherwise place in oven at 275° for 30 minutes or long enough to warm through.

Meanwhile, make a roux of 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp flour in a pan. when melted and mixed, add 1 C warm milk. Bring to boil until thickened. Add 1 C shredded cheddar, Monterey jack, or other cheese of choice. Add 1 jalapeno diced, 1/3 c of green pepper.  Loosen the mixture with a bit of milk again. You want this to be ladle-able.

Place the enchiladas and cheese sauce on the table, along with sour cream and salsa (home-made if you like –my recipe is on this blog under I think condiments or Tex-Mex) and green onions and ripe olives sliced for garnish, along with thinly sliced shredded cabbage. I know this sounds weird but the crunch is wonderful. (add it to the top of the enchiladas before the cheese sauce.)

That’s it! 

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• Cracks In Republican Support For Governor Walker Anti-Union Bill (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• “Wisconsin Republicans Preparing to Break With Union Busting Gov. Walker?” and related posts (guerillawomentn.blogspot.com)
• Republicans to debate Ohio union bill for weeks (reuters.com)
• GOP In Danger of Losing Younger Voters in Wisconsin? (themoderatevoice.com)

Hell of a Way to Start a Month

Tags

Asian food, Black History Month, Bushes, Egypt, Fox News, gay rights, Glenn Beck, GOP, Media, Recipes, salad, Sarah Palin, Sojourner Truth, teabaggers

It’s tomorrow. That stupid hauling out of an innocent but essentially stupid animal. Go ahead, subject him to lights, camera, and gawking humans.

Ask him if he saw his shadow. Hell, he doesn’t know what a shadow is. And I’ve yet to see the correlation between his shadow and atmospheric conditions across the vastness of North America.

We have enough trouble dealing with the massive slap in the face we are getting this afternoon in the form of a blizzard. (Actually we might get by with no more than six little inches, so I’m feeling frisky.)

Anyway, this is the last month of winter by my reckoning, and I’m intelligent enough not to go around asking woodland critters their opinion.

So, welcome to February. It’s gotta be all uphill from here!

***

Picked this up from the Salon. It was just too good not to include.

***

Fox Crap is reporting very little about what’s happening in Egypt. They are playing it as a bunch of Islamists bent on setting up an Al Qaeda-friendly government. Not truthful of course, but as the next article makes it quite clear, this is exactly what Fox does so very deliberately.

Andrew Sullivan points out that what Fox Crap does is not just misinforming their viewers, but is deliberately done that way. No other way to explain Beckian insanity, and the deliberate attempt to encourage their followers that they cannot trust anyone else to give them truth. This is some sick stuff.

***

In case you missed it, Jon Stewart did a hysterical Sarah Palin gotcha. You remember her and her WTF little drivel? Well, Stewart, ala Fox Crap, or more specifically ala Beckian conspiracy theory, makes out a very convincing case that our Sarah is in reality a Russian spy. The Salon has it.

***

Like Daddy, like daughter? Nope. Dubya’s daughter, one of them at least (the brunette?) I think named after grandmother Babs, has come out publicly in favor of same-sex marriage. In this case, the apple falls far from the tree, or acorn, or corn cob. Whatever, you get the idea.

***

I haven’t posted a recipe in a long time. I saw this and it looked like it might be good. An Asian Coleslaw made with that broccoli slaw in the bags at the supermarket. Simple ingredients.

***

Almost forgot. February is Black History Month. Here isa very nice speech given by Sojourner Truth. And check out the site, it’s one I’ve never seen and it looks like a good one! History buffs!

***

See, it’s smart to not walk on frozen ponds if you are unsure. CRACK! Massachusetts Scott Brown’s dalliance with the TeaBuggers is apparently over. The NRT (National Republican Trust) PAC, who backed his election with money galore, has given word it will do its level best to unseat him in the next election. His crime? Not voting NO to every Democratic legislative bill. That was his duty according to NRT mouthpiece Scott Wheeler. Oh how quickly it all unravels. *SNICKER*

In other states, teabugger organizations are poised to get rid of Olympia Snowe, Orin Hatch, and Richard Lugar. These are all Senators, like Brown. What the dim lights fail to get is that they lost almost all of these Senatorial campaigns. Their following is too small to win anything but small congressional districts where like-minded narrow minds have gathered to live in covens of irrationality. Duh.

***

Snoring Dog Studio, great friend of AFeatherAdrift, has a serious confession to make. I’m not saying, but I was utterly shocked. From a purist like me, well, I’m not sure we can remain friends. Perhaps we can, but I can’t let her in the house. They neighbors would be aghast. Bring Sno Balls as an offering. I could be persuaded.

***

I gotta get busy with cooking.

What’s on the stove: fajitas!

***

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Bolognese Sauce or Get a Grip!

Tags

Bolognese sauce, Bristol Palin, DWTS, economy, exit polls, Hawaii 5-0, Italian, meat, Recipes, unemployment benefits, voting

I love to cook, well most of the time I do. I like to slice and dice. I like working with garlic and onions and tomatoes. So I guess it’s obvious I like EYE-Talian stuff.

So, I figured I’d make a Bolognese sauce, instead of the standard spittingetti sauce I usually make. I figured the main difference would be meat. I decided to use venison since we gotz a lot of it, and it is great in dishes like this.

So, I looked up a recipe in the bible, AKA Joy of Cooking. I had all the ingredients, celery, onion, carrot, white wine, beef stock, milk, tomato paste. Good to go. Didn’t have pancetta, which is just fancy bacon, but I had bacon.

Well, it’s simmering on the stove as we speak. It’s a thing you simmer a looooong time, because it tastes better when you do. And I just couldn’t get over the fact that there was no garlic in it, nor any tomatoes. And I dragged out two Italian cookbooks, one of which is the one from the famous Rao’s in NYCity. No Bolognese sauce in either. None in Martha Stewart’s either. Hmmmm.

So I jumped on the old intertubes and ran it. And landed on a message board where there was a contentious debate about when to add the wine, and when to add the milk. Some added garlic, some abhorred such a sacrilegious addition. Some added tomatoes, of every type, pureed, diced, crushed, and whole. Some added fresh herbs, Batali uses cream. An authentic La Scala recipe was a fraud, and more a plea for “what was in it that made it pink and was the carrot grated or minced?”

“Authentic” recipes abounded and they were all different. I began to wonder if this was like pesto. I had a friend who is very very Italian. Her mother raised paste tomatoes and put up sauce every year. She had never heard  of pesto. Go figure. Was this Bolognese sauce somehow a family recipe? I mean, I figured it originated in and around Bologna, Italy. I figured it was more peasanty food.

I had learned from a Latino restaurateur, that there is a local drink in Mexico that is essentially a home-brew and every family pretty much makes it a bit different. Was Bolognese sauce like this?

Anyway, it all got too much for me.  I can’t get that intense about cooking! I just want something to taste good and be a standard recipe I can “go to” knowing it will turn out without a lot of trouble. If you have an authentic Bolognese sauce, by all means let me hear it.

***

Speaking of the latest election, exit polling tells you why people voted the way they did. This is much more reliable than listening to politicos, most of whom say that people voted the way they did in support of whatever they want to pursue legislatively speaking. Here’s some results I uncovered about the crazy election of 2010:

• Democrats by a healthy majority don’t like the Afghan war but Republicans do. No surprise.
• Most people voted their party affiliation, and both sides dislike their own party more than they like it. No surprise there either.
• Everybody agreed that “it’s the economy stupid,” but there is no clear consensus on how to fix it. That seems true of the so-called experts as well. That leaves us in a pickle I think.
• Gays voted Republican in higher numbers than in 2006 or 2008. Go figure that one out. The war is now out in the open between social and fiscal conservative GOPers. This is likely to get ugly.
• Latinos voted strongly Democratic except in Florida where Cuban Latinos are a whole different animal.
• People who got money (over 100 thou) vote Republican. No surprise.
• Democrats pick up most of the post-graduate educated and the less-than-a-high-school diploma group.
• Catholics swung back to the GOP but narrowly so.
• Working class stiffs went GOP, making it clear they don’t read much of anything.

***

I just about lost my cookies on this one. I mean, I started to laugh, and then I started to chortle, (which is different but hard to describe) and the Contrarian is asking, “What? What?”

It seems that a Wisconsin man (OKJimm was it you?) shot his TV to death after watching Bristol Pistol Palin dance on DWTS. I kid you not. A SWAT standoff followed for hours. I also discovered that indeed the voting is fixed. It seems that DWTS can’t control e-mail votes and some Palin-idolators are bragging that they voted for three straight hours building up lilBris’s vote tally. Goodbye DWTS.

***

It’s worth your time to stop by Lisa Golden’s blog That’s Why to get information about lobbying your Senators on the issue of extending the unemployment benefits bill. People are in need through no fault of their own. The usual GOP excuses will be coming forth, so do your bit, please.

***

We watch Hawaii 5-0. I didn’t expect to like it, but I kinda do. I love the scenery, because I would love to live there. The Contrarian likes it because it’s “episodal.” He thinks most of the world’s problems stem from shows becoming serial. He’s nuts, but you know that. Best line from the “Danno” character ( do not know his name) on David Letterman:

In response to the question “how you do you like living in Hawaii?”

“I loved it the first three weeks, but then I started to miss angry people.”

Yep, I can feel the love. *whimper*

***

Well, enough of all this. I’ll let ya know about the Bolognese Sauce. Let me know if you have ideas about the recipe ingredients. I love ya.

Related Articles

• Bittman’s Bolognese (tbeidler.wordpress.com)
• In Italy, It’s True What They Say…. (napaman.com)

Just Think: Ponder THAT!

Tags

Calvin & Hobbes, fear, loneliness, other, philosophy, psychology, Recipes, sociology, turkey, voters, worry

It’s been a dark and gloomy time since yesterday. I think I saw the glint of the sun for about 32.7 seconds at 9:07 am. That was it. Intermittent rain, never very hard, dashed in and out throughout the day and night.

There’s been no more rain yet today, but gloomy it tis. You know the kind I mean. Everything is leafless, grey-brown, boring. A chill wind, wet-damp everywhere. The beasties are all tucked into their lairs awaiting a call to pee or better weather.

I’m snuggled in too, none to excited about making pork chops, mashed taters and gravy and some kind of veggie. But I will. It’s a day for watching football and pondering things.

What kind of things? Dunno, haven’t pondered them yet. But I’ll link up as I find stuff worthy of the word. Trust me. I know you do.

First up I was led to this lovely post by Roger Ebert. Seems he blogs. Thomas from Living Next Door to Alice gets the H/T for this. Ebert’s post is about being an outsider, no matter how defined, and loneliness. It’s a powerful post. He wrote in response to hundreds of comments on an earlier post found here.  I think I’ll pop Mr. Ebert’s blog in my reader. You may want to as well.

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America, she is a fickle woman. I just read a poll that suggests that voters are already having “buyers remorse” about electing Republicans and giving them the House. We have, as I’ve said, rather short attention spans.

Keeping on a theme of thoughtful ponderful ideas, we offer Big Think (catchy huh and on point!) and an analysis of a worried electorate and how Obama understands it, but has yet to give up on rationality as the key to tapping into the psyche of the average joe.

Actually this piece is a perfect companion to my post Fundamentally Futile, and says it way better than I did.

The real arrogance comes in clinging stubbornly to the belief in the supreme powers of reason. Smart people need to be smart enough to realize that our smarts can only get us so far.

This is well worth your reading.

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I ran into a blog on cooking. Big deal, tens of thousands of them. I went, I saw, I was convinced. I’ve brined the last two turkeys, and have been thrilled with the results. I now understand that using one of those roasting bags works just the same, and saves all the mess of brining. So, I’m going to try it. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

PS: I searched another blog with the same raves. This person compared a deep-fried turkey to the oven bagged one, and found them equally moist and tasty and the bagged one was hugely easier.

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I long to be a writer of note. I long to write searingly honest raw gut-wrenching words of who I am inside, deep inside. I offer a glimmer now and then, but then retreat out of fear and perhaps some loathing. Don’t we all loath ourselves just a little? Don’t we all delight in believing that our hidden ugly places are not so bad. That yours are as bad if not worse than mine? That we could share our pain and our arrogance at one and the same time, if only we were courageous enough? I ponder being searingly honest like I imagine Hemingway was or Plath, or Williams, and then I chuckle and figure I’ll be about as honest as Bill Watterson, hiding behind Hobbes. Go figure.

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“Isn’t it sad how some people’s grip on their lives is so precarious that they’ll embrace any preposterous delusion rather than face an occasional bleak truth?” (Calvin)
“It’s not denial. I’m just very selective about the reality I accept.” (Calvin)

“History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That’s why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.” (Calvin)

“It’s not the pace of life I mind. It’s the sudden stop at the end.” (Hobbes)

God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things.
Right now I am so far behind that I will never die…(Calvin)

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Time to ponder. Time to think about starting to work up the menu for Thanksgiving and the list of stuff to shop for. I haven’t decided upon a dessert. I want something easy. I want something insanely good. Any ideas–please let me know. What are your go-to recipes for Thanksgiving? A plus is that I already have enough cornbread in the freezer for the dressing. It’s a weird recipe, with mozzarella cheese and pine nuts. But delicious.

I want to do something with shredded brussel sprouts and then saute them? Any ideas about what herbs or additions? Lemon juice and djohn mustard with parsley? Help me out! Or jalapeno and brown sugar glaze? oooh, I like that idea!

I always carmelize pearl onions. I always make some fancy cranberry sauce with orange segments and pecans or something. I always do green onions and radishes and olives and sweet pickles. I have the rolls already in the freezer from a week ago–bonus!

I have a squash on top of the fridge. I roast that. Mashed taters and gravy. Hmmmm, am I missing anything?

The dessert–come on and tell me what to make!

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Happy Saturday. Go Iowa! Take a nap. Eat gravy. Have a brownie.

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