triticale - the wheat / rye guy

Snapping Turtles

Chocolate and chili have worked well together for centuries, in everything from molé sauce to brownies. This recipe will be a treat to those who appreciate heat, but a shock to those who don't. Please share it wisely; if you don't, your victims have my permission to express their displeasure.

1/4 stick butter
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce
1 cup pecans

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Melt the butter - 30 seconds in a cup in the microwave will suffice. Stir in the hot sauce, which should be neither a showoff faceburner nor a vinigar-tasting one like the Frank's the wee wifey puts on her french fries. Pour over the pecans and stir to coat evenly. Place in a baking pan and cook 10 minutes until pecans are lightly browned. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

Pecans from above recipe
36 Caramels
2/3 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet. Arrange pecans, flat side down, in clusters of five. Place one caramel on each cluster of pecans. Heat until caramels soften, about six minutes and remove from oven. Flatten caramel with buttered spatula. When cool enough to handle, remove from pan to wax paper. Melt chocolate chips in microwave, stirring until smooth. Note that strictly speaking, chocolate becomes plastic rather than melting; judge readiness by how it moves when you stir rather than waiting for the chips to all run together on their own. Start by flashing for one minute, and use twenty second increments if more heat is needed. Spoon melted chocolate over caramel topping on pecan halves, taking care not to cover the pecan heads and legs of the turtles

Joke Lists

You know you're addicted to something or from someplace if you actually get these jokes and pass them on to your friends who are too.

Note, however, that it is not the Jesus Car, it's Brother Ron.

I An Not A Number

Despite that fact, if I do actually ever acquire one of these, it will not be painted the colors associated with being not a number. Around here they have a very different meaning.

Altho I am not a number,

What A Hoot

That is, after all, a common expression for something both surprising and amusing. This may actually turn out to be a screech or a great horned...

Voodon't

The true test of someone else's intelligence is how much they think like you. Altho his application is the contrapositive of my own, Drumwaster sees as I do the significance of flag burning. It is a ritual equivalent to making a wax simulacrum of Uncle Sam with amber waves of grain for his hair and sticking a pin thru the heart. The dirrerence here is that I have been opining for at least a decade that it is those who are calling for Constitutional protections for symbolic representation of our nation are the ones guilty of magical thinking.

Neat-Oh

I was scanning the news for how Erin and Danica did at Richmond International Speedway (Crocker crashed Silver Crown due to mechanical failure; Patrick was competant but unspectacular) and happened up a totally unrelated story in one of the papers from that neck of the woods. It's about the coolest program for high school students I've ever heard of; infinitely better than the J.E.T.S. thing I took part in decades ago.

Quote For The Day

More advice from Emrack:

"It isn't a souviner, it's evidence."

I am pleased to report that he doesn't remember who he heard this from.

Huh?

I spent some time today surfing the FBI's Most Wanted site. This is an old pastime of mine; I used to read the paper wanted notices at the Post Office. Some of the things I read today made me curious, particularly the matter of how one can survive on the run for any length of time. One fugitive has been out there for so long that his listed occupation is Keypunch Operator.

What has me so puzzled that I am soliciting an explanation is in the description of this particular alleged badguy. How exactly is it "indicative of his extreme religious beliefs [that] he has been seen wearing fringe on his shirt cuffs and pants bottoms?"

Lazy Luxury

The wee wifey has just returned to work, after two months off, and they have her on light duty. Someone decided this means she should work second shift instead of third, and this has her out of kilter enough to do little else besides work and sleep. This has led to the development of the following wondrous gourmet recipe.

1 tub of sour cream
1 packet dry onion soup mix
2 packets ramen noodles

Prepare the onion dip and the noodles, each according to the standard recipe. Drain the noodles (this is always a good idea if you use the flavor packets since they are mostly salt). Spoon the dip onto the noodles until they are well coated (about 1/4 of a batch; I make sandwhiches with my share of what is left). Eat slowly and savor.

More Plasma Widescreens

The citizens of Racine County Wisconsin have just bent over, grabbed their ankles, and exposed their pockets to be picked. Despite clear proof that school administrators gleefully piss money away, they voted YES on a referendum to allow themselves to be taxed in excess of the established caps.

There is one positive note in this. It destroys the arguement against the proposed Wisconsin TABOR, since the taxpayers will have the same opportunity to be conned into agreeing to being taxed beyond its limits as they already have with regards to school spending caps.

Then There's Tupelo...

The new Coke product, Zero, strikes me as the worst branding mistake since New Coke. For one thing it is taking away the tiny amount of shelf space allotted to Diet Cherry Coke, and it has already been difficult to obtain enough Slim Roys to keep up with the wee wifey's thirst. It also looks like a poor attempt to compete with Pepsi One.

Chaz is looking at another problem with the brand, which is that it is aimed at a market which does not respond well to being a target. He and his commentors compare this to the marketing of Japanese motor vehicles. This amuses me because I associate the name Zero with a Japanese company now best known for their automobiles.

Camel's Noses

I took part in a discussion of the extent to which the opportunity for the people of China to express themselves thru blogging, even in restricted spaces, might tend to subvert their dominant paradigm. There are other factors which will also tend to have that effect. I see it as inevitable that the Chinese production workers described here will ultimately come to want to live within a system which provides them the opportunity to possess silverware-drawer sorters, microwave omelet cookers, and soda-can holders for their automobiles.

I was reminded just yesterday, due to an update of the playlist at the wee wifey's favorite "oldies" station, of a similar development. When the political shifts precipitated by Ronald Reagan reached Albania, one of the western commodities most craved by the people there was microwave ovens. They had no idea of the convenience provided by them; merely aware that Custom Kitchen Delivery had to move them as well as having to move refrigerators.

The Ravin' Raven

When I originally linked the Raven 42 after action report, I referred to it as Audie Murphy stuff, but actually wrote more about the role of the competence and confidence which our military's training produces. Now that these heroes have received the medals which honor their performance, John has posted a follow-up explaining the medals. In the comments there Ric Locke (who I knew from other web forums and from Usenet before I started blogging) makes a point which ties back to my point in naming that highly decorated WWII soldier, the degree to which myths and stories affect the confidence of soldiers and their unit cohesion. Medals are, in part, awarded in recognition of superior behavior because they add to those stories...

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester isn't going to get the movie deals and the customized Thunderbird which Audie Murphy got, in part, it seems, because she is less newsworthy than someone named Jennifer Wilbanks, but the story of what she and her unit did is going to live on long after everyone else is as unaware of Jennifer Wilbanks as I am.

Thought For The Day

"You are better off with that fat chick sitting at the end of the bar than with any woman you connect with online as a casual sex partner."

This is from my son. I don't know the whole story, but understand it to be based on experience.

Get With It

Once again I am way out in front of the crowd. The database which proves the validity of this assertion has long been linked in my Other Stuff collection. Scroll down, folks.

Curt And Rod

I'm not sure who Bob's friend Weave is, but the two characters in the title are the ones who hold up some of what can be created by making use of the subject matter of the two posts being linked.

Culture Notes

Some things may indeed be more important than politics; if so this is a reminder that all politics is local.

Youyou

It's all the same meme. The high school incrowd slambook thing, as Acidman pointed out, but if he can do it, so can I.

Here's a list of favorite literary characters of mine; the challenge is to identify the book and the author.

Amanda Garrett

The kid at the Crossing

Howard Clinkscales

pudgy Galadrial

Ben Weatherstaff

The man who wouldn't take yes for an answer

Mrs. Caroline Ward McNamara

Dana Svennson

Nola Elidad

Joe Buckley

Erich Zann

Moishe Weinstein

Oh, Scar

No fair googling them even tho I used it to confirm a couple of spellings.

Additional Heirs

There is another key question, never raised in the discussion of the estate of Darth Vader. This estate, to answer one commenter, would no doubt include considerable wealth in the form of land holdings, orbital mineral rights, and confiscated assets. Might not other relatives not mentioned in the saga, Vaders such as Taxi and Draft E, have claims on the estate?

Rewrite The Dreamcar List

It's the ultimate benchracer motor. We were kicking the idea around the engineering school cafeteria. Some have actually tried before, but it is now being test driven, it performs as well as one always imagined, and it is actually available.

So, what sort of car would you choose as the target of an engine swap, when the engine going in is a V8 which weighs under 200 pounds, measures - Length 546mm Width 513mm Height 440mm - produces 360 horsepower from the factor (with 750 possible with twin turbos but it voids the warranty) and revs to 10,000 RPM?

My son would put his in an MG-B for maximum surprise value. I would build a lakes modified rat rod around it, for maximum cognitive dissonance.

Update:

Someone else is producing a similar engine. It appears to be a little less extreme, but this variant makes up for that.

Border Security

It appears that someone has found a solution to the labor supply problem which would supposedly be a result of proper enforcement of immigration laws.

Another Godwinner

Jeff, at Beautiful Atrocities, has collected a list of links to comparisons of various people to Adolf Hitler. One person is noticably absent from the list; bicycle racer and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. After all, as everyone knows (to the tune of the Malt-O-Meal jingle):
Hitler has only got one ball,
Goering has two, but very small;
Himmler is very sim'lar,
And Goebbels has no balls at all.

Unburned Chocolate Pound Cake

I've posted some recipes which have been blue ribbon winners for us. This one wasn't, and that is the source of the name I've given it. Altho my wee wifey had picked the recipe on the basis of its having won at the South Carolina State Fair, the judge at the Wisconsin fair took one look at this cocoa-rich chocolate cake, determined it to have been burned, and disqualified it. I wanted to enter it the following year, expressly identifying it as not being burned, but was outvoted.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup butter -- softened
3 cups sugar
5 eggs -- room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325F. Generously grease a 10" tube pan and dust with cocoa. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder into a medium size bowl. In a large bowl, cream shortening & butter to blend; gradually add sugar, beating until light & fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Alternate adding portions of the flour mixture, milk and buttermilk, beating until batter is smooth and well-blended. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven 1 1/4 hours or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Invert on a serving plate. Cool completely before serving. Makes one 10" cake

TTF?

I saw a rather disturbing bumper sticker today on a car parked downtown. It identified the car's owner (if I understand the significance of displaying the word by itself) as a Vaginatarian. No indication as to whether this is where said person's beliefs or opinions come from or what the diet consists of (at first glance I presumed it read vegitarian).