Month: March 2017

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Tightwad Tip #12,826

Well, it would be #12,826–or higher–if I simply wrote down a daily log of tightwaddery @twc central. . .

Anywho, since I’ve not gotten around to adding a hose bib for the back yard, yet (yeh, the place has been w/o one for 40 years, since it was built, 22+ of them under our stewardship, so it’s not a big rush item), and one of our two hoses (needs at least 2-50′ hoses to be useful for back yard) bit the dust toward the end of last summer, I decided to keep an eye out for another one.

Found one. It’s one of those expanding/collapsing hoses. 50′. Just a couple of bucks. Seriously. Even at a “fell off the back of a truck” store, that’s unbelievable.

Believe it. But there was a reason: the rubberized fabric hose sheath had a 1” seam split. Oh Noes! Not.

1. Sew up the split.
2. Coat the repaired split with silicone gasket compound.
3. Wrap that with self-sealing silicone tape.
4. Cover the self-sealing silicone tape with pieces of the “dead” hose’
5. Rewrap with more self-sealing silicone tape.

Tried it out. Looks good.

Even if it only lasts one season, a 50′ hose for under $5 isn’t that bad, but I fully expect it to last longer than that. In fact, I do not expect the repair job to fail at all during the hose’s usable service life.

Oh, the tip? I should think it was obvious: don’t pass up a bargain just because it has one flaw, as long as that flaw is repairable. . . inexpensively (read “inexpensively” as “dirt cheap” *heh*)

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“Lucy”

Amusing to watch a movie on TV (I’m also reading a book and slipping out to do this during commercial breaks. a close approximation of my typical TV-watching habits for about. . . 6 decades) and watch, during a gunfight scene, one character’s wound move from one side of his body to another. Yeh, continuity shoulda caught that. But then, that was the least of the continuity errors and other flubs and wildly laughable mistakes in the film.

Suspension of disbelief was irrevocably broken in the first five minutes though, so all the errors, laughable mistakes of anatomy, mechanics, procedural “bind-moggling,” etc., were more amusing than distracting, because NOTHING about the film was in any way, shape, fashion, or form believable, even within its own framework, right down to the protagonist’s hair color.

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Quick Salsa Fresca “Notarecipe”

This is to my taste. YMMV, so adjust amounts/ingredients at will.

Salsa fresca is one of those super easy-peasy things to make that really add a lot to meals and snacks.

Three or four ripe roma tomatoes, chopped or diced, depending on your preference. Size and amount of tomato suiting your taste rules here.

Three or four jalapeño or serano peppers, diced. (Again, to taste–other capsaicin-laden peppers can be substituted, if you wish.)

1/2 yellow onion, chopped or diced–your preference.

Two to four minced cloves of garlic.

Lime juice (to taste).

You may notice I do NOT use any cilantro in my salsa fresca. That’s simply because fresh cilantro tastes stongly like soap (cooked cilantro, perhaps a bit less so, but still. . . #gagamaggot).

Just mix the stuff up and chow down, or store it in a well-sealed container and use it within a day or two, at most.

Bonus: just add this to some coarsely mashed avocado for semi-instant guacamole. Yum.

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Just a question

In our near-1984-style surveillance society, how many folks physically block their device’s cameras/microphones when not using them for specific tasks?

*raises hand*

Well, that’s one of us. . .

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Parenting Tip

Tip, do not “purchase” a free book with even one error like this in the TITLE:

“The Unmotivated Child: Learn How to Motivate Your Child to Be Succeed [sic]”

“. . .to _be succeed_”?!? If you feel you don’t have a support group that can help, just wait for a book written by someone with basic competence in English, mmmK?

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“Irks Me” #3,642

More and more often of late I have seen constructions (in supposedly “professionally written/edited” text) like,

“I would have sung along, if I knew the words.”

“If I would have known the words, I would have sung along.”

Both are horribly wrong, and evidence of serious subliteracy*. Neither should see the light of day in literately edited text.

Correct:

“I would have sung along, if I HAD KNOWN the words.”

If I HAD KNOWN the words, I would have sung along.”

Even worse are those illiterates who add to one or the other of those disgustingly egregious (for a writer who expects to be paid) assaults on the English language an attempt to gag a maggot by writing, “have sang.”

#gagamaggot

That is (nearly) all. . . for now.

*I define “subliteracy” as being the condition of being able to decode/encode those funny lil squiggles that comprise written language, while stubbornly maintaining a very, very poor understanding of what is written/what one writes. This condition is primarily due, I think, to a lazy a-literacy: refusing to take the time to become both fluent and literate by means of reading a great deal of well-written text.

I find that in every single case of subliteracy I have ever run across the person is a self-imposed victim of Dunning-Kruger Syndrome; they think they are literate, they “play” a literate on the Internet (and elsewhere, succeeding only in fooling other subliterates and seriously illiterate folk), and they have no interest whatsoever in improving their literacy. In fact, most are offended at being corrected, instead of taking the opportunity to learn from correction.

Note: in casual daybooks, journals, or emails, etc., not written for pay lapses in orthography are certainly excusable. But people who accept pay for wordsmithing should be corrected, and excoriated in the strongest language if they take offense at correction.

And THAT is all. . . for now. 😉

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Is this “slaw” or what?

I grew up with the following salad as part of a comfort meal that included packaged chicken pot pies, though my mother has, for the past ten years or so, disavowed any knowledge of this salad. . . *heh* I’ll give ingredients only–except for a couple of items–and note that you should simply balance the other ingredients against these to your taste.

1 – 14.5oz can of “fruit cocktail,” drained. (Sip the “drainage” or use elsewhere, if you want.)
1 – apple, chopped
Some coarsely chopped walnut
Celery seed, or celery seed and chopped celery.
Chopped green cabbage
Mayonnaise or “Miracle Whip” type salad dressing (use mayonnaise *heh*)

Combine and then place in the fridge for a few hours. I serve it, as per the childhood “comfort food meal,” with chicjen pot pies, whether home made or packaged.