triticale - the wheat / rye guy

Who Me?

My stepmother-in-law took in a cat when one of her underlings moved to unpetfriendly quarters. Her own cats were too territorial, and her townhouse to small, for him to fit in, so he wound up here in our household. We would not have been likely to have named him Sebastian, especially now that we have a neighbor with a young son by that name, but he responds to it, so we really shouldn't rename him something such as Poojer.

Altho he recognizes his name, he always has this look of surprise on his face. I got pictures of all five of our cats in this first experimental roll, but only the one with insufficient light came out well enough to post without color correction. I'll stop down a way on the next roll and introduce the rest of the crowd.

Peach Salsa

Daily David mentioned in his recipe posting last week that he is tuning a recipe for a dip featuring mango and habenero. Sweet fruits and hot peppers make a deliteful combination for those who appreciate heat, and I was inspired to dig out a succesful recipe of ours which uses a similar combination.

We took a fourth place ribbon with this at the Wisconsin State Fair a few years ago. From what I've seen of the judging there, it would have probably placed higher if the heat were backed off a bit. The reaction I got when I brought a jar to a Miller Park tailgate party was that the heat level was just right. Depending on whether you are preparing this for fuddy-duddies or fans of consuming beverages at sporting events, you can seed fewer or more of the peppers.

6 cups peeled, diced peaches
1 1/4 cups red onion, chopped
2 jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 jalapeno pepper, seeded, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, loosely packed
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 clove, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Simmer for 5 minutes. Pack into hot jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (0-1000 ft.), 15 minutes (1001-6000 ft.), and 20 minutes (above 6000 ft.).

Vigilante Vengeance

You'll thrill to the true life adventure of a man who couldn't wait for the police. He sought out those who had wronged him, and saw them brought to justice.

just simply Audie Murphy stuff

BlackFive had the Whole Thing, and the word was out that it was to be read. It reached Castle Argghhh! thru different channels, such that John wasn't in a position to post it as soon. When he was, he gave us more, adding a commentary which I suspect is a taste of what he is doing for the Army.

Once you've gotten it text mode, you will get more out of the videos, including some from the other side.

Update:

Okay, I've figured out where my take on this comes from. I've worked in various industries, in production, distribution, front-line support, and other aspects. The only incoming fire I've taken came from customers and various layers of coworkers. I can barely comprehend the intensity of getting things done in combat, but I have seen why professionals talk logistics, and I have seen how confidence, cross-training, and, yes, standardized loadouts, make everything more doable.

'Ell If I Know

What do you get if you cross an elephant and a rhinoceros?

Stern's Gallery of Stereotypes

David's Mediankritik is a German blog specialising in German media coverage of the United States, and this time they have found for us a masterpiece. Leading German news magazine Stern ran a photo essay depicting the USA as a divided land.

The only black face in the collection is of a prison lifer. There is no discussion of why he's behind bars. He could be a victim of past injustice or a heartless vicious murderer. If they had come to Milwaukee I could have introduced them to the owners of a grocery chain who would have been glad to pose for them. The only Latinos they depict are working a hard and dangerous job, but there is no mention of what kind of wages they are earning. If they had come to Milwaukee I could have put them in touch with the owners of a grocery chain who would have been glad to pose for them. I don't do as much shopping at El Rey's as I do at Lena's but I think it worth mentioning that the one bank officer who was willing to take a chance lending startup money for the city's first Mexican grocery is now a senior vice president largely because of the business the community brings to the North Shore bank.

The picture I found to be most stereotypical is the one of Snailtrail and Usnea. If there is one place in the country where you could count on finding anarchist vagabonds without checking the calender, it is Garberville, California. I would love to get a look at those kids' teeth. Emrack tells me that is the sure way to spot the trustifarians, who make up about thirty percent of the scene.

I'd have been glad to pose for them too. Elbow-length hair, business casual attire, live in the inner city in an integrated neighborhood, own far fewer than 75 guns but will be buying more, voted for Bush but don't always agree with him. I could pose in one of the parlors of our 100 year old home, with the hardwood paneling and molded plaster trim, and give them a pithy quote about the time we had to choose between our phone bill and our mortgage payment, but somehow I don't think they'd be interested.

Curried Tree Bisque

My son's grandmothers hated each other, and disapproved of their offspring's chosen spouse, but they both doted on him. Both were sure our decision to educate him at home was doomed to failure, so they took it upon themselves to augment our home schooling; he usually responded by acting ignorant.

My wee wifey's mother-in-law was not the most famous cook in the family, but she was a locally respected food writer and cooking instructor. When Emrack was seven, she decided it was time he start learning to cook. Rather than tell her that he had been cooking for himself, under supervision, for a year, he created the following recipe with far less tutelage from her than she thought would be required. She was far more surprised than we were at how perfectly it came out.

2 cups water
1 of those things you put in water to make soup
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1 box of that frozen vegetable that looks like trees
1 big measuring spoon of cream

I'm using his words, as exactly as I remember what I was told. Translations are of course boullion cube, brocolli florets and tablespoon.

Heat the water until it isn't really boiling (a pretty good way for a seven year old to say simmer) and add the boullion cube and curry powder. Once the cube has dissolved, add the brocolli and simmer until it is litely cooked. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream. The seasoning turned out perfectly, which isn't surprising considering he had plenty of experience experimenting with curry in his ramen noodles.

More And Morons

Back when I was involved in producing specialty steel fabrications for heavy industry, I came to the conclusion that whoever came up with the aphorism "The customer is always right" never ran a job shop. Looks like the same conclusion applies in other lines of work.

The Moonbats Is Coming

Being for once a hoot instead of astute, Varifrank channels Iowahawk. As for that final battle he reports, my money is on the hollow-earthers.

Contrast

From the sublime (or at least way cool) to the ridiculous...

Update:

The post I linked as "way cool" has been updated with pictures. Note that the "good idea that did not really work" was in fact designed by a committee (who started by turning a halfway decent design upside down), produced to channel tax money to connected individuals, and very simply did not do the job for which it was intended

Mother Was Right

My parents were "non-aligned Marxists" which means they drifted away from the Communist Party when its ties to the Soviet government became an embarrasment. The true name I'm not using includes a disguised (they were that paranoid) reference to a family friend who was a hero at the Battle of Jarama during the Spanish Civil War. They never bothered actively trying to indoctrinate me, probably because they took it for granted I would absorb the True Faith. One thing I did pick up on was my mother's utter disdain for the Trotskyites, who believed that as a mere handful, they would be sufficient to Bring The Revolution.

Scroll down thru this collection of images from the recent anti-everything demonstration. Note the sign reading "Break with the Democrats. - Party of Racism & War! For a workers party that fights for socialist revolution". The Spartacist League is a splinter faction which split from the mainstream Trotskyites for betraying the true spirit of revolution. I share my mother's disdain.

The Obvious Question

The first thing which comes to my mind whenever the subject of chewing gum comes up is the teacher askingg "Did you bring enough for everybody."

Note that I went to school so long ago that to actually do so was just about the evilest deed a student could commit.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Noted blogger baby Daily Sadie has apparently discovered the connection between a dropper full of grapey-tasting stuff and relief of her teething pain. This is of course an important step in a child's mental development. It is also a good reason for me to start cat-blogging, which I should be doing now that my son and his canine are probably going to be settling in the Carolinas.

The Peteymonster was one of the cats in the household of my son and his then wife when he became so ill that even on their budget a trip to the vet was in order. He was too miserable to resist being loaded into the cat carrier. His recovery was so spectacular that when it came time for his followup visit and they brought the carrier back out, he ran and jumped into it, something no other cat has done since the beginning of recorded time.

Another Whole Thing

Read it.

"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."
- Thucydides

Update:

This one's even more important.

Thought For The Day

Or, more correctly, insult for the day. It could have been worse; he could have used Martin and Lewis as his example.

Boiled Corn Cobs

There is more than one solution to every problem. Is the new, reconfigured Sears still producing those big catalogs?

Nonlinear

Colby Cosh Has a post which he warns might as well be written in Linear B if you are not Canadian. I hate to disappoint him, but it made some amount of sense to me, and I worked with a woman who would no doubt have understood every detail and quite possibly have recognized the names. I'm sure that there are plenty of USians who, if they have any exposure to the sport of curling, it is only thru the fiendish thingie scene in Help, but there are parts of this country with enough frozen lakes and persons of Scottish ancestry to actually support competitive rinks.

Besides, one can be completely mystified as to the role of sweepers and the nature of the tap-back, and still recognise failure to inform the rest of the team of the intended play as something not to do in the national championship.

Sophisticated Brits

While we silly Americans are woorried aboud a silly wardrobe malfunction, the BBC, with closer ties to the government than our public television, is offering up this.

Another Dragon Awakened

It appears that the recent massive IRA bank robbery has not been healthy for their money laundering operation.

Escalade Soup

This soup is not named after a pickup truck bedecked with bling, but if you read on, you will see that the reverse may be true.

2 medium potatoes
3 carrots
1 parsnip
1 leek
3 stalks celery
2 quarts beef consomme
1 pound frozen peas - defrosted
3/4 cup rice
1/4 cup minced parsley

So, what's this consume, eh? Some brands of packaged beef broth claim it is a direct substitute, but it isn't. Consomme is correctly a seasoned, reduced, clarified beef broth. You could start by cracking the bones from some roast beef, and simmering and skimming and adding tomato paste and a couple of bay leaves and simmering some more and straining and simmering and skimming but you probably won't. You could start with the boughten beef stock and add a beef boullion cube and maybe a vegetable boullion cube, but you would do well to look for low-sodium broth, as those boullion cubes are pretty much flavored salt. The most likely solution is four cans of Campbell's condensed beef consomme. If you add the full four cans of water you will be a tad over two quarts; you could measure out enough water to make it exact if you want. In any case, adding a scant teaspoon of instant coffee to the liquid will bring out the beefiness, but more than that will make it bitter.

Peel the potatoes, carrots, parsnip and onion, and wash the leek and celery, and then slice them all. Peeling the parsnip is especially important because for some reason they seem to always be coated with wax wherever I've gotten them. Simmer the vegetables in the consomme for 15 minutes, add the peas and rice, and simmer for 20 minutes more. Add the parsley, and maybe a pinch of salt if whatever stock you used wasn't salty enough already.

You could probably make this soup in the crockpot on the high setting by lengthening the cooking time, but that would rule out the final historic detail. Bring the soup to a full boil, and pour it on the Savoyard soldiers, scaling the the wall, thereby scalding them. This historic action, "L'Escalade", took place in Geneva, Switzerland the night of December 11th, 1602, and is remembered every year with speeches, parades, and soup. Geneva being a city noted for wealth, any reference to it no doubt adds class to your SUV.

I found this recipe, and the history behind it, in a delightful cookbook entitled Cooking Round The World With A Wooden Spoon, by Frederique Fredge, which I happened upon while thrift shop shopping. I picked up the book to see if I wanted to further burden our vast collection with it, and opened it at random to an incident from the author's childhood which took place one block north and two miles east of our house. The author being in some sense a neighbor, I of course brought her book home. Milwaukee's Vliet Street farmer's market, also known as the Haymarket, was at one time the city's melting pot, the place to buy live chickens, fresh vegetables, and assorted ethnic cuisines. It was the original home of Speed Queen Barbecue, which John Kerry failed to go to when he campaigned in Milwaukee. The Haymarket was torn down to build the Lake Extension to the freeway system, and then the Lake Extension was in turn torn down to make downtown Milwaukee harder to drive to and thus more attractive to do business in. The resultant empty space will someday again be a thriving business district when all the other projects are completed and the demand for development space outweighs the feelgood restrictions put on this one area.

Investorization

Professor Bainbridge links to some fascinating data graphed by the pollster Zogby which shows that across all sorts of demographics (the Professor is particularly interested in how it graphs among the traditionally Democratic) people who self-identify as investors are more likely to vote Republican. The numbers are striking, and will bear watching over the upcoming interesting times.

When you compare how people behave with how they identify themselves, you run into a chicken and egg problem. It could be that people who are inclined to vote Republican are more inclined, as a consequence of their worldview to invest, or even just more inclined to think of their holdings as investments and themselves as investors. Conversely, it could be that rising home values are causing people who bought simply for secure shelter to think of themselves as investors, and to look at things as Republicans do. If we are in fact in a housing bubble (which I doubt) this latter effect may be fragile.

Regardless of the cause of this shift, the Democrats must respond to it if they are to retain political significance. They can either discourage people from thinking of themselves as investors, which may be what the Social Security battle is all about, or they can change their platform so as to be more attractive to investors. This will mean abandoning the class warfare position so attractive to the leaders of organized labor (if not their members) and to the activists who see themselves as the new core of the Party, and will require a considerable intra-party power struggle. Hillary Clinton has done a pretty good job of presenting herself as moving to the center, but I really don't see her campaigning on her own record as an investor.

Suspicious Timing

Those multiple choice quizzes rigged to make everyone come up as libertarian have popped up once again. I looked up what I wrote the last time they came around, and was surprised to note that the date was within a couple days of exactly a year ago. Promoting libertarianism during Lent just might support the notion that the philosophy is politicized libertinism.

As a matter of fact, Lent is not about institutionalized prohibition. It simply provides an institutionalised framework for abstinence thru self-discipline. Abstinence thru self-discipline can be good for you, it can increase the enjoyment provided by indulgence, and if it became popular enough it could shift popular sentiment such as to reduce the call for prohibition.

The Envelope Please

I hit the Hotmail page this morning to get rid of all the spam and rescue the good stuff they deemed junk before downloading my mail with the aid of HotPopper. I usually ignore all the MSN stuff being promoted, but Hot on Hotmail: Steal Oscar looks for your wedding was just too special to pass up. I can imagine all sorts of possibilities, and the acceptance speeches would have to be an absolute hoot.

Heh Indeed

And now there's another cliche you can expect on a regular basis:

LOTS OF GOOD STUFF AT THE BELMONT CLUB: Just keep scrolling.

Nefarious Scheme

British blogger Tim Worstall has spotted an opportunity to committ extortion. It's called campaign finance reform. United States law prohibits political candidates from accepting foreign monetary contributions, requiring that they either return those donations or drop out of the race. The FEC is interpreting McLain-Feingold to suggest that blog linkage is equivalent to monetary contribution, and a link on a British blog by a British blogger cannot be laundered thru a Buddhist temple, as it is out in plain sight.

Can anyone tell him whether Hillary has started her Exploratory Committee for ’08 yet?

Questionization

According to my understanding of memetics, the entire "everybody answer the same questions" thing is a single meme. New questions don't equal new meme. The meme has now mutated, tho, into a Ponzi pyramid scheme which is supposed to boost my readership. I volunteer to be one of five people answering Caltechgirl's questions, and it pays of in hits, fed hopefully by traffic generated by her other questionees. I in turn offer the opportunity for five bloggers to volunteer to answer my questions and receive traffic generated similarly, for which they in turn offer the same until all seven million seven hundred thousand bloggers have participated, at which time the whole thing collapses. Anyone who wishes to participate on this basis need but to comment to that effect, and then participate as described.

Without further adieu, here are the questions and answers:

1. Do you also consider yourself one of the "normal"munuvians? What the heck is the deal with the munuvians, anyway?

I was honored to be invited to join the mu.nu community generously hosted by Pixy Misa. Munuvishness indicates a certain level of quality, and a certain commonality of viewpoint (but not a political lockstep). Altho there are several munuvian blogs I read on a regular basis, in truth I do not participate in the community as much as I would like.

2. Why triticale? I know it's an esoteric hybrid grain. Are you an esoteric hybrid kind of guy?

Right wing long-haired hippie hawk. Bluecollar redneck nerd intellectual aesthete. High in lysine and in overall protein. Yeah, I guess so.

3. What's your favorite meal to cook?

Dinner.

4. Milwaukee, huh?

We had been looking for a larger, less expensive house in a less gentrified neighborhood in Chicago without much luck. I went to Milwaukee on a business trip, and, for amusement, brought the homes for sale magazines back with me. My wee wifey took one look at them and decided we were house hunting in the wrong city. I logged onto the real estate search site we had been using, put in our search parameters, and she had me click on the third one to come up. We went up to look at it the following weekend, and made an offer the week after that. It cost us half what we got for our place in Chicago, was in twice the condition and four times the size. We are about to sell it eight years later for twice what we have in it, having once again bought in front of gentrification. This time we are just moving three blocks away.

One of the deciding factors was the fact that the victim disarmament laws here are less severe than in Chicago. About a year earlier, herself had suggested we look into moving to Indiana, where we could get carry permits, but the economics of it didn't work out.

5. What's your biggest blog peeve?

Things happen too fast. By the time I notice a story, figure out what to say about it, and get it half keyed in, the original post has aged off of the blog where I found it.

Sounds OK To Me

Volokh conspirator Orrin Kerr has a post regarding an interesting provision of the Patriot Act, one which has gotten far less publicity than the one which has led my local library to protect our privacy by making it more difficult for my wee wifey and I to attend one another's checkouts and returns. It seems unlikely, but this law which supposedly exists to destroy our civil liberties requires the Department of Justice to collect a database of alleged civil liberties violations. Among those deemed frivolous by the Office of the Inspector General is one I'm inclined to make light of, a complaint that prison officials had laced the prison food with hallucinogenic drugs. I have to wonder if anyone complained of being left out of this program.

Gross Negligence

Professor Bainbridge, being as he is very serious about his wine, was bothered more by a technical detail than by the cheesy gimmicks and tangled plot of The Family Trade. I can't say I blame him, even tho my own tastes run toward beer and distilled beverages.

Wine is one of those things, like cars and guns, which some people care about a great deal, and which really aren't difficult to research enough to get correct. You either have one character offer up "an unassuming little vintage" which the other character recognises as something special, or you go to the trouble to get the details correct.

A Simple Fix

The Instapundit has assembled an overview of the discussion of the perceived lack of diversity, with diversity defined by ethnicity and gender, in the blogosphere. The solution is blindingly obvious. Round up a bunch of persons of difference, and cause them to produce interesting blogs.

I have attempted to do my part, but my wee wifey is perfectly happy expressing herself online thru group mailing lists, some of which she manages, rather than by blogging. This fix will therefore require more forcefulness than I am in a position to exert.

Indolence

As someone who retains a scholarly interest in the complex chemistry of psychedelics and the brain, I'd love to see more research on what exactly is going on here.

Update:

Link fixed

Refer Ends 'Um

Like he says, this is the way taxation should work. It is important for Wisconsinites to understand that despite the rhetoric, taxation would be allowed to work this way under TABOR and any interim freeze.

Revised Theory

The fashion advice of the Manalo, it is super-fantastic, and the third person, English as a second language shtick, it is amusing. The triticale had presented the theory that the Manalo is fluent in the English, but now the triticale, he is not so certain.

Read the last three words. The AI was not programmed carefully enough.

Get A Life

Fargo Jimmie tossed out a link to the Amazon page for the book from which his pint-sized moll is teaching herself to read.

The reviewer who took the opportunity to make snide remarks about The Hobbit was just being a butt-butt boy, but I really worry about the reviewer who found Are You My Mother? insensitive. I can think of no better fate than for her daughter, who resembles her more than a baby bird resembles a steam shovel, to save herself for marriage to a man of her own ethnicity and live happily ever after in a house with a white picket fence around it.

Whiskey Mango Foxtrot

Once I thought of the name, I had to develop the drink. At first I was thinking rum-style, with lots of juice. After reading the book Party Drinks, everything fell into place.

2 oz. Bourbon Whiskey
2 oz. Mango Nectar
Juice of 1/2 lime

Shake with ice in your cobble, and strain into a tall glass.
Add six oz. Club Soda.

Damning With Faint Praise

Mr. Yousefzadeh finds something complimentary to say about Richard Milhouse Nixon.

Milestones

My Sitemeter visit count hit 20,000 today. It took over a year, and includes visits to my original Blog-city site which has faded away. I know that's a good day for the big ones, but it still means something. The actual 20,000th, according to Sitemeter, came from google, but it was a search on Milwaukee vote fraud, which makes me feel like I'm doing some good. I also had a visit today from someone googling * highest grossing movies The Silence of the Lambs * but I went thru 198 links in the search and couldn't figure out how they wound up here.

Another milestone has also been achieved today. I have an actual conversation going on in the comments to one of my posts.

Star Wars Stuff

Two very different image posts. One of them is really cool.

Corporate Welfare

Owen has a post on how a Wisconsin politician is telling the farmers he did it all for them. The rest of us are told fuel ethanol is for the environment (it isn't) and thus for us. In actuality the benificiary of fuel ethanol is the huge agribusinesses who process it amd spend some of the proceeds on campaign contributions.

There is a lesson here for others in government. Let us imagine for the sake of discussion that you are one of the people holding the reins, and want to transfer taxpayer dollars to a company whose core competancy is in engineering services to the oil industry. There are those who would suggest that the way to do this is to take advantage of a contracting procedure established by the previous administration, and spend billions of dollars liberating millions of people as an excuse to grant said company contracts on which they make a predetermined moderate profit. Not only would this be politically risky, it is also inefficient. If people in government wanted to transfer taxpayer dollars to a company whose core competancy is in engineering services to the oil industry all they would have needed to do is set up a bogus "alternative energy" program similar to fuel ethanol whereby extraction of shale oil is made price competitive at taxpayer expense. The voters would love it.

Why Would You?

Drumwaster has linked to a test of metrosexuality. I score even lower than he does, despite acknowledging having applied a wall treatment (working with my wee wifey on preparing her room).

One question has me completely mystified. They ask "Have you ever thrown a dinner party?" I didn't know people even bet on them.

Whoda Thunk?

New law fails to save foxes.

Touch of the hat brim to Vilmar, who linked a couple of weird stories from the same source. The anti-hunting activists are moonbats; a kid who goes out mid-winter in a t-shirt is ordinary stupid.

I Didn't Want To Know This

The Abluter is guest Vodka-blogging, and posted a link to something which hopefully has no connection to the notion that quacks don't echo.

Lamentations of the Father

My wee wifey has been cleaning up her hard drive in preperation for the move. Actually, she would have been sorting and packing for the move, but being run down from the flu she was cleaning up her hard drive. She came upon something which I had forwarded to her long since, and sent it back unto me, that I might share it with you in the extended entry.

Household Principles for Children from the Old Testament
-- by Ian Frazier

Laws of Forbidden Places
------------------------
Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat, but not in the living room.

Of the hoofed animals, broiled or ground into burgers, you may eat, but not in the living room.

Of the cloven-hoofed animal, you may eat, but not in the living room.

Of the cereal grains, of the corn and of the wheat and of the oats, and of all the cereals that are of bright color and unknown provenance you may eat, but not in the living room.

Of quiescently frozen dessert and of all frozen after-meal treats you may eat, but absolutely not in the living room.

Of the juices and other beverages, yes, even of those in sippy-cups, you may drink, but not in the living room, neither may you carry such therein.

Indeed, when you reach the place where the living room carpet begins, of any food or beverage there you may not eat, neither may you drink.

But if you are sick, and are lying down and watching something, then may you
eat in the living room.

Laws When at Table
------------------
And if you are seated in your high chair, or in a chair such as a greater person might use, keep your legs and feet below you as they were.

Neither raise up your knees, nor place your feet upon the table, for that is an abomination to me.
Yes, even when you have an interesting bandage to show, your feet upon the table are an abomination, and worthy of rebuke.

Drink your milk as it is given you, neither use on it any utensils, nor fork, nor knife, nor spoon, for that is not what they are for; if you will dip your blocks in the milk, and lick it off, you will be sent away.

When you have drunk, let the empty cup then remain upon the table, and do not bite it upon its edge and by your teeth hold it to your face in order to make noises in it sounding like a duck: for you will be sent away.

When you chew your food, keep your mouth closed until you have swallowed, and do not open it to show your brother or your sister what is within; I say to you, do not so, even if your brother or your sister has done the same to you.

Eat your food only; do not eat that which is not food; neither seize the table between your jaws, nor use the raiment of the table to wipe your lips. I say again to you, do not touch it, but leave it as it is.

And though your stick of carrot does indeed resemble a marker, draw not with it upon the table, even in pretend, for we do not do that, that is why.

And though the pieces of broccoli are very like small trees, do not stand them upright to make a forest, because we do not do that, that is why.

Sit just as I have told you, and do not lean to one side or the other, nor slide down until you are nearly slid away. Heed me; for if you sit like that, your hair will go into the syrup. And now behold, even as I have said, it has come to pass.

Laws Pertaining to Dessert
--------------------------
For we judge between the plate that is unclean and the plate that is clean, saying first, if the plate is clean, then you shall have dessert.

But of the unclean plate, the laws are these: If you have eaten most of your meat, and two bites of your peas with each bite consisting of not less than three peas each, or in total six peas, eaten where I can see, and you have also eaten enough of your potatoes to fill two forks, both forkfuls eaten where I can see, then you shall have dessert.

But if you eat a lesser number of peas, and yet you eat the potatoes, still you shall not have dessert; and if you eat the peas, yet leave the potatoes uneaten, you shall not have dessert, no, not even a small portion thereof.

And if you try to deceive by moving the potatoes or peas around with a fork, that it may appear you have eaten what you have not, you will fall into iniquity. And I will know, and you shall have no dessert.

On Screaming
------------
Do not scream; for it is as if you scream all the time. If you are given a plate on which two foods you do not wish to touch each other are touching each other, your voice rises up even to the ceiling, while you point to the offense with the finger of your right hand; but I say to you, scream not, only remonstrate gently with the server, that the server may correct the fault.

Likewise if you receive a portion of fish from which every piece of herbal seasoning has not been scraped off, and the herbal seasoning is loathsome
to you and steeped in vileness, again I say, refrain from screaming. Though the vileness overwhelm you, and cause you a faint unto death, make not that sound from within your throat, neither cover your face, nor press your fingers to your nose. For even I have made the fish as it should be; behold, I eat it myself, yet do not die.

Concerning Face and Hands
-------------------------
Cast your countenance upward to the light, and lift your eyes to the hills, that I may more easily wash you off. For the stains are upon you; even to the very back of your head, there is rice thereon.

And in the breast pocket of your garment, and upon the tie of your shoe, rice and other fragments are distributed in a manner wonderful to see.

Only hold yourself still; hold still, I say. Give each finger in its turn for my examination thereof, and also each thumb. Lo, how iniquitous they appear. What I do is as it must be; and you shall not go hence until I have done.

Various Other Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances
--------------------------------------------
Bite not, lest you be cast into quiet time. Neither drink of your own bath water, nor of the bath water of any kind; nor rub your feet on bread, even if it be in the package; nor rub yourself against cars, not against any building; nor eat sand.

Leave the cat alone, for what has the cat done, that you should so afflict it with tape? And hum not the humming in your nose as I read, nor stand between the light and the book. Indeed, you will drive me to madness. Nor forget what I said about the tape.

------------------------------------------------

I went to google groups to confirm when and where I'd found it. I was correct in tguessing that it had been in 1997, but it turned out I had found it on rec.food.cooking rather than where I thoughht I'd gotten it. At the same time I also found the following worthwhile addendum:

I think there was a verse missing from that passage (Hezekiah 16:1-56?)
about: Thou shalt not blow bubbles in thy drink, neither by straw or
mouth... (paraphrase)

Book Game

Found it at Mike the Librarian's, oddly enough.

1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it. Just grab what is closest!

She turned to look at Helen herself. "Actually I'd like to hear all of it."

"There's not really all that much to tell-" Helen began, but Aikawa laughed.

From The Shadow of Saganami by David Weber. Selection based on parsing the instructions to mean that the fifth, sixth and seventh sentences are posted, and decision to post based on the fact that this passage, out of context, conveys nothing.

Exactly

Chris Muir has a lot to say about McCain-Feingold and freedom of speech.

Stealth Tax

One of the things I hate about Milwaukee is the policy of issuing tickets for revenue generation rather than to regulate parking behavior. 'Tis the syme the whole world over...

Situation Wanted

I have been made redundant by changes in the organization structure. Yes, that really is the reason. The firm I've been contracting at has decided to phase out the Milwaukee office and run everything out of Chicago. They may even hire another person from the Chicago area to cover what I've been doing. There are both efficiencies and inefficiencies which come from this but it is not a desperate cost-cutting measure or a sign the economy is in trouble. They are spending a billion and a half in one other large market, and will spend something like two and a half million putting up additional sites in the Milwaukee market. The root cause is management philosophy.

I'll be okay. I have another week to go, a month's food in the pantry and freezer, four month's take-home in the cashflow account, zero debt, and the firm I contract thru has already informed Unemployment that I am entitled. I'm not about to drop out of the labor market, but I can afford to narrow my search and take my time. I'm not going to enhance my leisure index either. The wee wifey expects our other property to be ready to move to very quickly now.

I don't have all the latest skills, but I have twenty five years of computer background, extensive manufacturing knowledge, and the ability to pick up an application and run with it. I've been in cellular network optimisation the last five years, industrial control computers before that, and am pretty much of a plug-and-play geek. Short term contracts and any shift are both welcome. Greater Milwaukee area only, except for brief assignments; I've travelled on a couple of those before. Serious inquiries only.

She'll Learn

"She is a good kid that has made a couple of mistakes," but she only delivered half the package.

Crockpot For Breakfast

One of the reasons crockpot users are so enthusiastic about them is that you can set up a meal before you leave for work, and have dinner ready when you get home. What most folk don't realize is that you can also set up breakfast before you go to bed and have it ready in the morning.

I first ran into the idea on the Usenet frugalista group almost a decade ago. The recipe posted then was:

Overnite Rice Pudding:

1 cup rice
6-8 cups milk
1 cup sugar (I would recommend brown sugar for flavor; and I certainly wouldn't do like the creator of this recipe and consider using two cups of sugar)
1/4 cup dried raisins
cinnamon to taste (I'd start with a quarter tee)

Cook on low over night.

I loved the concept, but the use of milk turned me off. We eat lots of cheese, I eat lots of yogurt, but I having drunk any milk since I was a calf and haven't poured any over cereal in at least fifteen years. We rarely even have any in the house. Besides, regular rice in the microwave is so fast and easy that I'd find it silly going to this much work to cook it. So when our life shifted to where doing something like this made sense for us, I went looking for other recipes.

Green Chili Grits:

2 cups regular grits
6 cups water
1/2 teaspoon paprika (optional)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 ounces chopped mild green chile (New Mexican if you have it)
1 or more jalapeno chiles, seeded and finely chopped
dash cayenne

Combine all ingredients in the Crock Pot and cook on low for 6 to 9 hours. Whatever is left after breakfast can be refrigerated in a loaf pan, and then sliced and fried for dinner.

Overnite Oatmeal:

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 to 1 cup chopped dates, apples, or raisins, or combination, optional
4 cups water
dash salt
maple syrup or granulated or brown sugar, to sweeten

Spray Crockpot with non-stick spray. Combine ingredients in crockpot; cook
on low for 8 to 10 hours. Stir in sweetener when almost done. Serves 8 as found, which is more people than I've made breakfast for in a while, but adjusting is a simple matter of arithmetic.

In other news, I have continued experimenting with my Dragon Wings, and have posted an update to the original recipe.

Update:

My wee wifey just sent me another recipe for crockpot cereal:

1/4 cup cracked wheat
1/4 cup buckwheat groats (kasha)
1/4 cup oatmeal (real oatmeal or at least what they now call od-fashioned)
1/4 cup pearl barley
1/4 cup brown rice
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups water

Combine all the ingredients in a crockpot set on LOW temperature and cook overnite. Again, quantities can be adjusted, as long as your crockpot is small enough that you aren't starting with a thin layer on the bottom.

Interpretation

If there is any value to the tarot, it is not as a framework on which to hang ones beliefs and expectations. That is why I won't add any detail to my statement that I disagree with this reading and assign very different significance to the particular cards.

The one time I ever had a reading done by someone who regularly did more than play with the cards, most of the insights could have come from her knowledge of me, but I did father a child seven years later, and it was, as predicted, a "bambino".

Bloguncledom

Frank Martin has answered the age-old question How did I start blogging, and what has it meant to me? with the sort of worthwhile essay he is noted for, and in it he gives me some of the credit (or blame). I'm not sure making an offer of hosting space, when he chose other arrangements, constitutes insistant. I figured he were meant to be a blogger, as this early post demonstrates.

He ends his essay by describing blogging as "The best way to drain your emotions since the invention of the medicinal leech", which is about as much better than "it beats yelling at the callers to talk radio" as his posts generally are compared to mine. I do hope folks will scroll down a bit, and maybe check back once in a while. I have a few essays in the works, and time to polish them is coming my way.

Fair And Balanced

Milwaukee talk radio host Charlie Sykes reports that in response to the reaction to their decision to allow Ward Churchill to exercise his right to freedom of speech on their campus, the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater is inviting him to also speak on campus.

Could It Be?

It looks like yet another domino is starting to tip.

Nannyware

I remember that when the Wall Street Journal's technology editor first tested Internet filtering software several years ago, it blocked his access to the online version of the newspaper of his home town of Middlesex.

Fortunately, my Eudora email software settles for giving me a polite warning, a hot pepper icon on the index line, that in one of the mailing lists to which I subscribe, the word cock appears in a discussion of what happens when you work the bolt of a hunting rifle.

Progress

Altho it means I need to point out yet again that I was unaware of the connection when I picked the grain as my nickname, I would like to add tribbles to this list.

Also phasers, and the use of elevator doors for ordinary entrances.

Several Months Late

The executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, who has in effect dismissed all the evidence of vote fraud in the Presidential election as merely her own incompetence, has resigned.