Category: Uncategorized

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Drive-by posting

Don’t worry; no has been hurt… yet.
 
Just about out the door on the way to church for Mothers Day, but was struck by this thought…
 
Have you ever wondered where those folks who say “This stuff tastes like crap!” have been eating?
 
(Yes, we’re going out to eat for Sunday dinner after church.)
 
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Blogmothers Dayâ„¢

Today is the day. Make your Blogmother [virtual] breakfast in bed (don’t burn the toast!); bring it to her on a tray (don’t spill the coffee!); thank her for being the best blogmommie you’ve ever had…
 
…and get ready for Blogfathers Dayâ„¢. (June 19, 2005).
 
Have you sent your Blogmom a Blogmothers Day™ card, yet? 
 
See ya at the next Blogosphere Meme Poolâ„¢ meme.
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A note for “Alfie”

“What’s it all about?”
 
I do have a few regular readers.  And some few one-time or occasional visitors.  (BTW, that’s what I like my stats engine for: seeing where my visitors come from—who referred them and where they live, which pages they viewed, etc.  It’s gotten so I can tell when some of my “regulars” have visited by place, ISP and computer config, even if they don’t drop a comment.) But I also have folks who’ve expressed interest of a sort in my blogs who don’t even use a computer…
 
heh
 
Recently, an offline acquaintance asked me, when I’d made mention in her presence of something I’d blogged, what my blog was about.
 
Hmmm…  I’m not a news blogger, although I do frequently note newsy items and comment on them.  I’m not a social critic blog, although I do that, too.  I’m not a chatty family-type blog or a diary/journal blog, though there are times when that comes through. 
 
So what is my blog about?
 
Whatever is going on in this maelstrom that is my thought processes. There’s very little (well, apart from the manufactured crap that is put out by Hollyweird and big recording labels) that I don’t find interesting in some way.  And I like looking at things from different angles, playing with ideas. 
 
So, this blog is a kinda real world “Being John Malkovich“-type experience, without John Malkovich, John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, et al, and featuring just glimpses inside the head of an often curmudgeonly resident of America’s Third World Countyâ„¢.
 
Food, coffee, music, poetry, current events, education, personal experiences, the weird and eerie—whatever.  I fit no real niche, and this blog is pretty much just like me: comfortable juxtaposing the profound and the foolish, the vulgar and the sacred; you know, like life itself.
 
Formative experience relating to the juxtaposing of apparently contradictory things in life: my Baptist preacher grandfather was a truly great man.  Seriously.  His life revolved around the Holy.  But he was as common as dirt. I once heard him (in the late 1950s) answer the parsonage phone, “(His Name) Mule Barn.  Head Jackass Speaking.” (It was one of his deacons on the other end of the line… )
 
Why, I asked him, had he answered the phone like that? (At that age, I knew there were some words I was not to use and “jackass” referring to a person was one such.) His answer:
 
“If the Lord could speak to a prophet through the mouth of an ass—and a hinny ass at that!—it just doesn’t take much to be a preacher.”
 
(N.B. Numbers 22:28-30* Balaam’s ass was female; women preachers were unknown in Southern Baptist circles at the time of this incident—and are still rare today.)
 
It took me a long time to “get” what he was saying, but part of it was coming to grips with apparent contradictions (such as “jackass” in the mouth of a preacher—and not just any preacher at that, but The family patriarch, as it were).  Another part was finally just not taking myself so seriously.
 
So, whatever happens on this blog, it won’t (I hope) be me taking myself too seriously, nor will it be locked into one set pattern.  It’ll be pretty much whatever’s going on in my head.  Maybe silly, maybe profound, probably some mix of the two but rarely over the edge.  OK, I lied about that last.
 
*28 And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 Then Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a mockery of me! If there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now.” 30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?” And he said, “No.”
 
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Sentimental Condiments

When I saw this, really saw it, I knew…
 

Sentimental Condiments 
 
First, let me state the conditions under which I post this (deliberately non-attributed) pic. I cannot reveal where I got it or whose fridge door this is a pic of. 
 
You know, when I saw what appears to be a jar full of pickled beets in the upper right hand corner of this pic, I wondered… “How long has that been there?  And who really eats those things, anyway?”

 
Now the question: how many of us, if we were to be honest with ourselves, at least, have fridges full of “sentimental food remains”?  You know what I mean.  The Miracle Whip that’s of indeterminate age, but which remains in the fridge door because, well, we’ve grown strangely attached to it… That kind of thing. 
 
This is just a passing pickle pondering.  Any takers?  What “sentimental condiments” are clogging your fridge door?
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Reset! Reset! Reset!

heh
 
I get all these nice folks visiting cos of Blogmothers Dayâ„¢ and  “O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree” and Carnival of the Recipes #38, and then I finally notice that TTLB’s Ecosystem tracks stats with Sitemeter…
 
*sigh*  And here I’ve been using a (very detailed and info-dense) “invisible” stats engine from another source all this time, so…
 
Reset! Reset! Reset!
 
Oh. Well.  At least I reset after traffic had kinda died down for Mothers Day weekend.  *LOL*
 
Now you know why I’m a “slithering reptile” in the TTLB Ecosystem: it’s an evolutionary thing.
 
🙂
 
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OK

Carnival of the Recipes #38   is up at Techno Gypsy’s and I’m certainly gonna have to get some extra exercise!
 
I mean, whoa! I saw Too-Easy Chocolate Brittle over at Blonde Sagacityâ„¢ and started drooling.  If anything’s gonna bump Javascript Cookiesâ„¢ off my plate for nibbling on with a cuppa joe, it’d be this stuff!
 
And then there are recipes for “Stroganoff or Mother Hubbard’s Pantry”, Andouille Guiness Chili (habañeros! nice!) and Chicken Broccoli Au Gratin (for a little comfort food). 
 
Ahhh! There is a lot more.  Just go browse before doing your weekend grocery shopping, eh?
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A simple recipe

When you’re brewing a pot of The Holy Bean in honor of your Blogmother (for Blogmothers Dayâ„¢, of course, silly)…
 
…Keep in mind these simple tips (below).

It’s a simple process that always yields a reliable brew.  I’m not a “great” coffee brewer.  Not quite anal enough, I guess.  I don’t roast my own beans or anything like that, and I’m not a fanatic coffee gourmand. But I like good coffee and prefer drinking coffee to sludge, so:

 
1.) ALWAYS use a CLEAN pot.  No, cleaner than that. And filtered water, please.
2.) Use fresh coffee.  Your fav, depending on taste; whole or pre-ground, whatever.  But fresh. (And of course in amounts to your taste.)
3.) A pinch of non-iodized salt on top of the grounds and
4.) Pre-wet the grounds with just enough brew-temp water to swell them.  Let it sit for just a bit to swell, then brew. (If using a French press, skip this.)
Works for me.
 
Oh, and for tutorials on how to use arcane coffee paraphernalia, Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea is developing some links.
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Mini-fisk of a fisk…

…of teachers’ salaries
 
While I agree in principle with the purpose and some of the content of the article, “The Teacher Salary Myth” on Coyote Blog has to say about public school (prisons for kids) teacher pay, this comment revealed an area where Coyote Blog is sucking swamp gas through a sewer pipe:
 
“… the “9 months” [per year work] estimate is only approximate, and doesn’t count the fact that teachers typically work a shorter work week than many other professionals….”
1.) “9 months”… “only approximate”?  I’ll say.  Now, I can’t speak for all public school teachers, and I know from personal experience that many are lousy, lazy bums, but… OTOH, I know more than a few that are not.  The good ones I know (and I know more than a few*) are “on the clock” for the better part of eleven months of the year, and for the other, well, that’s absorbed in Christmas, Easter, etc., and a couple of weeks real vacation in the summer. In other words, about what most other workers get. Don’t even try to give me the old “they only work from September through May” b.s.  I know better, from both personal experience and intimate acquaintance, backed up by reading policies and guidelines for more than one public school disctrict.
 
2.) “…the fact that teachers typically work a shorter work week than many other professionals….” Oh?  Let’s just take my wife as an example.  When she was a sixth grade teacher, sure, she only worked five days a week, officially.  Then there were those required “volunteer” days on weekends (kinda like the boss wanting salaried white collar employees to “come in on weekends” eh?) and the 7:00—4:30 (with lunch acting as time to be “prison guard” on kids) official times always becoming 6:00—midnight or thereabouts when all the paperwork (grading and remote administration-mandated documentation), planning, parent contacts, etc. were added in on a normal weekday.
 
(I’ll not even get started on the extra extra work over “vacation,” staying late daily, weekends, etc., that her next teaching gig after sixth grade entailed… just to do what was right by the students.  And she’s not the only teacher of her stripe.)
 
Don’t give me that crap about “shorter workweek.” No “business lunches” or “water cooler” or “coffee break” times.  Sure, a planning period (sometimkes three times a week), where lazy bums collecting a paycheck and not teaching goofed off in a so-called “teachers’ lounge”—while the real teachers (or those still trying to be real teachers) actually used the time for—gasp!—planning.
 
The unfortunate thing about “The Teacher Salary Myth” is that much of its analysis hinges on the myth of the nine month work year and the “shorter work week” assumed by the author.
 
And so it fails to convince me, since I know better.
 
Now, if Coyote Blog wanted to address “teachers” who are thieves—incompetent lazy bums taking paychecks for work they are not doing—then I’d be on that train.  I know more than a few of those. But then, we’d need also to start a discussion of the work ethic of white collar workers in general, if we were to be fair in comparing compensation… and I doubt Coyote Blog really wants to go there.
 
I am no fan of the “prisons for kids” experience (see here and here, too) we have called “public education, but a flawed fisk of teacher pay/benefits isn’t the proper road to take in fixing the problems.
 
*”more than a few”–let’s see: I’ve worked with (in the past) a couple of hundred.  Have family and extended family for at least a generation on either side of me filled with teachers, and I know far more I have met and gotten to know since I left the field.  All-in-all, it’s quite likely I know far more teachers and their experiences than anyone (including those who are teachers) else who responded to that article. The particular arguments that teachers work a shorter work year and shorter work week just do not wash.
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Time is getting short!

[BUMP to top: time IS getting short.  See IMAO shopping tips for Blogmothers Day™ at bottom of post]
 
Be sure to get in on spreading the Blogmothers Dayâ„¢ meme! And if you don’t have a Blogmother, consider “adopting” one, eh?
 
And remember also that Blogfathers Dayâ„¢ is coming up in a month or so…
 
I don’t care if you’re a member of The Dysfunctional Blogfamilyâ„¢, we can all share a little Bloglove® on these special days.
 
Let’s swamp the Blogosphere Meme Pool™® with warm fuzzies for these days, eh?
 
(Anyone want to take point on spreading the “Blogosphere Meme Pool™®” meme? LOL)
 
Last minute shoppers! See this at IMAO.  It just might answer your Blogmothers Day™ shopping needs!
 
Oh, and Whizbang ! is doing a roundup of “posts you may have missed”—and if I did the trackback right on that puppy, this one may well show up there, too… in the trackbacks section.  Some interesting stories there, including a rant about a school that banned playinng “Louie, Louie.” Spread the word about Blogmothers Dayâ„¢ , folks… time is running out.
 
UPDATE: check out the comments on this over at Bou’s.
 
ANOTHER UPDATE: My Blogmother has now acknowledged her progeny (of course, she had no idea what she had “birthed” until I mentioned to her my thanks for being directly instrumental in my “blog birth”… and her early encouragement with a simple and thoughtful email).  Thanks, Carol. And, as always, you can CLICK through to her site from my blogroll.  Sharp observation and analysis from a perspective of “…American political and religious liberty, free enterprise, limited government, military strength and traditional values…”

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Make the Punishment Fit the Crime

Alan Woody asks for suggestions on appropriate punishment for OBL and tickles my inner Curmudgeon into outright explosion
 
I posted a comment on Alan Woody’s “Bush’s Cowboy Attitude Rubbing Off On CIA?” after he asked for suggestions on appropriate punishment for Osama bin Laden.  Maybe I went a wee tad over the top.  You tell me:
 
RANT: ON
 
I’m kinda partial to
 
1.) Throw him in a pen of hungry swine and let nature take its course.
2.) Gather all the resultant excrement and save it for #3
3.) Salughter the swine; mix the blood, bone, and all other portions in a slurry with the excement and
4.) Air-drop the slurry over Mecca and Medina
 
Now, I know you’ll probably think the last 3 steps a little harsh, perhaps provocative. But if we do it after sending a company of Marines into Saudi Arabia to shut that country down (except for oil exportation, of course) and put a lid on wahhabism, and simply shoot all Muslims who protest the actions, no matter who or where they be, I think jihadism might be dealt a setback.
 
Yeh, the Mecca/Medina thing might alienate some Iraqis. So? Arm and train the Kurds (you know, once known as Saracens?) and let them loose (on Turkey as well as anyone else). Their ties to the Mecca/Medina brand of Islam are weaker to begin with, and heck, they could scare the living daylights outa the Iranian mullahs while they’re at it, probably wipe them and their ilk out.
 
Don’t know if it shows, but I’m just about outa patience with Islamic acceptance of jihadism.
 
RANT: OFF
 
Realistically, his head in a bed of dry ice (after a few hours of serious torture) would be fine by me. (Various other OBL body parts to be used creatively in interrogating other jihadists… )
 
So, what works for you?