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The Holy Brew, “French Rite”

When I cracked the carafe on the very nice Bodun French Press that Estimable Son-in-Law gave me, “French Rite Holy Brew” went by the wayside for a while. I’ve since replaced the device with a cheap, Mr. Coffee version that nevertheless works just about as well (just has an even more fragile carafe and insubstantial holder for the carafe. *shrugs* At least it does work).

mr-coffee-french-press

But still. . . getting the water to juuuust the right temp. . . Ah! Finally, the light breaks! Heating water to correct brewing temp? Silly puppy. Our (rather nice) Cuisinart drip coffee machine does that quite well.

Coffee’s on!

O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree!

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Mummeries

Yes, that’s not a typo. The ridiculous memories that play themselves out on the stage of my mind oftentimes follow a kind of formal pattern delving deeper with every off-the-wall connection.

Wha?!?

Oh, this: some strange mental wanderings led me down Mummery Lane today to. . . “The Moody Blues,” of all things.

Background: back in my “yout'” I was almost completely disinterested in Rock music, and in fact heard it as some sort of crap intruding into the background of my life, for the most part. Boring, predictable, poorly-conceived and executed, from what I heard. Junk “music” for the most part. YMMV, but that was my view as a youngster, and it’s mostly held through to today, except that, nowadays, the manufactured toxic pap that passes for Rock music is largely even less musical.

Now, note that “for the most part”. Every now and then an individual artist or group would do something interesting, musical, even good. Think “Chicago”. Some really interesting stuff there. But, “Moody Blues”?!? Yes. OK, so the vocals largely suck–their pitch matching, tonal quality, etc., were not all that great. They also had a problem common to a lot of Rock groups: “How do we end this song?” “I dunno. Let’s just fade it out, mmmK?” *sigh*

But crappy vocal production, lyrics that ranged from pedestrian to pompous to. . . interesting, and the all too common inability to find an end to an individual song aside, their albums were still musically interesting, mentally stimulating, enjoyable, not at all the same boring thing, again and again, with–maybe–some minor tempo variation thrown in. Maybe. Nope. The kind of things some Rock fans derided them for was a BIG plus in my ears.

*shrugs* Interesting.

*heh* I just realized I unconsciously mimicked the guitar part on one of the pieces from “On the Threshold of a Dream” in a piece I wrote back in 1994.

Continue reading “Mummeries”

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Illiterate Nation

I just read a comment by a fairly regularly published columnist who wrote “assume” when she meant “as soon”. That’s a pretty strong indicator of what any literate person would see as illiteracy: a verbal vocabulary that outstrips a written/read vocabulary to the point of a baffling lack of comprehension.

Assuming people are literate just because they have a large storehouse of words they can encode or decode (whether they comprehend those words’ meanings or not) is something I’d as soon see–No! a lot SOONER see–eliminated as allowed to continue. More and more often nowadays, it just ain’t necessarily so.

More here and here and here and here.

Literacy is more than just being able to decode/encode letters into words; it’s more than having a large vocabulary of–largely–misunderstood words; it’s more than simply being able to encode/decode words and know those words’ meanings. Literacy is being able to read and comprehend (genuinely) complex text and having read loads and tons and yards and yards of well-written text requiring both concrete and abstract thought comprehension. THAT’S what literate people do.

But more and more Americans think they are literate, because they have (lying) certification saying they are.

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Beef ‘n’ Potatoes Something ‘r’ Other

Beef ‘n’ Potatoes Something ‘r’ Other
Recipe Type: Meal
Cuisine: Just Good Eats
Author: mnmus
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ground Beef and potato casserole.
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 package onion soup mix
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 3 medium potatoes
  • 3Tbs olive oil
  • 1 can condensed tomato soup
  • 1 15-oz can Glory Foods® Seasoned String Beans
  • 1C shredded cheese
Instructions
  1. Brown ground beef
  2. Preheat oven to 350°F
  3. Add onion soup mix and water; simmer for 15 minutes
  4. Wash and slice potatoes, “chip thin” (use a slicer or mandoline)
  5. Add olive oil to baking dish and begin layering:
  6. potato slices
  7. tomato soup
  8. string beans
  9. ground beef
  10. Top layer should be potato slices covered with the 1C of shredded cheese. (Almost any shredded cheese that you like will work.)
  11. Cover the baking dish with either its own oven-usable cover or aluminum foil and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake an additional five minutes, then remove the dish from the oven and let it sit for about five minutes before serving.
  12. The basic recipe (above) can be varied with preferred spices and herbs, as well as different vegetable additions, as desired.

 

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Home Is Where the Heart Is

In the sixty-*mumble* years of my short, short life, I’ve lived in quite a few places west of the Mississippi (one, just barelywest, but I have only vague recollections of my family’s sojourn in St. Louis) and traveled/visited to/in all the other lower 48 as well as other places outside our borders. Some have felt “home-ish” for a while, but when we moved to America’s Third World County™ a couple of decades ago, it felt like coming home.

First, the town and area we moved to had been buried in my unconscious since childhood by association with our “Uncle Hubert” (“adopted” uncle, lifelong friend of my maternal grandfather) who was from here, and whose grave is actually only about an eighth of a mile from our house. Automatic positive associations, since Uncle Hubert was a classy, classy guy who poured out strength, humility, honor and kindness.

Then, good Lord it’s beautiful here! Oh, it’s not the grandeur of the Rockies or the stunningly unique offerings of Yellowstone or suchlike. No, it’s a quieter, older beauty. A “rocks and rills and forested hills” kind of beauty. Get out and get “lost” on the back roads of the county: a fav activity of mine. (No, I don’t actually get lost. I know where the cardinal directions are and have a compass or three for seriously “dark and stormy nights” and whatever. I said “compass” not “GPS.” GPS is for subliterate wusses.) Still, the geographic and botanical variations are many and pretty darned amazing.

And the people. Sure, there are about as many dumbasses, jackasses and self-made morons as one might expect to find in any population, by normal distribution. But those are limited in effect and practice by an ethos of hard work, respect for common sense and a firm adherence by most of the folks to an attitude best characterized by, “your business ends where my nose begins. . . and vice versa.” “edumacation” levels are not what one might find in more urban areas, and, frankly, that is a good thing overall. (Most “highly educated” persons are self-made idiots, and I say that as a highly-educated idiot. :-)) Can-do? Yeh, third world county folks can.

And did someone say, “diversity”? We have the best and worst of that here, too, and it’s. . . working out for the most art (with some fear and trembling at times, but still working out). Somalis, Pacific Islanders (a couple of different groups, from different island groups, no less!), Moldavans, Germans, Vietnamese, Hmong, and quite a few more (including *sigh* more than a few alien invaders from South of the border). All of them seem, except for the Somalis, to be working hard at assimilating and becoming Americans (the illegals harder than some, though illegitimately). Culture clashes are almost. . . well, never.

And then there are the other demographics: townies and hill/country/”piney woods” folks. Those groups do overlap, but my fav folk are the folks I meet on back county roads, rednecks, hillbillies, even a few almost hermit squatters. Are some of ’em paranoid separatist “militia” folks? Yep. And almost all of them are good people, too, if a wee tad extreme in some views even for my taste.

Feels like home. Very classically conservative politically and socially, for the most part. That means, of course, that, applying the nose-business rule, that folks are allowed to be different and not generally forced into conformity, as in more and more subsets of society. Conformation to the norm of “if it ain’t your business, butt out” lifestyle is a type of conformity I can live with gladly.

Another Good Thing: Friction? Strong disagreements? Argument? Yeh, but when you can COUNT on most folks being armed, those things are usually dealt with better than in other places. Crime? Well, some, but home invasions, muggings, car jackings and suchlike? See above re: armed citizenry. Do more folks lock their doors in America’s Third World County than when we first moved here? Yeh, but the powers that be decided to put an Interstate highway through our county, and there went that tradition. No,seriously. Oh, there are other “benefits” of civilization that our rulers have foisted off on us that have contributed, but I’ll let the increased traffic stand in for them all.

Is America’s Third World County™ being brought slowly into the late 20th Century (it’ll be a while before the 21st Century begins its invasion here *heh*)? Yeh, but there is still a remnant of a better life here, and it’s home.

And, on top of all that, here is where my Wonder Woman lives, and that would trump anything else, anyway. 😉

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Reminder: Two Kinds of Muslims

1. Dishonest Muslims. These fall into two classes: a.) those who are practicing “holy deception” (taqiyya and kitman) to subvert the dar al harb and b.) those who simply lie about being Muslims for cultural or personal safety reasons.

2. Honest Muslims. These cover a short range from enablers of jihad (supplying money,personnel, matériel, [im]”moral” support, etc.) to those who actually open wage jihad against the dar al harb. (And another reminder: peaceful, “inner jihad” is BS.)

Thatisall.

And do remember:

“. . .the best thing about the inside of a terrorist’s mind was a 185-grain 10mm hollow-point bullet entering at high speed.”–Dink Chavez (Character in Tom Clancy’s “Rainbow Six”)

No, that is not all. How in the world did you think it would be, hmmm? 😉

Muslims and Muslim apologists who use “holy deception” (“taqiyya” or “holy lies” and “kitman” which is one-sided, deliberately deceptive propaganda) to gull stupid “unbelievers” into accepting their statements that Islam is a “religion of peace” (but, of course it is, if one thinks of “peace” as either a garden on the unprotected surface of the Moon or one of the circles of Hell) are, of course, type 1.a. Muslims. One of their fav techniques is to cite verses from the Koran that seem to implor even openly direct!–good intentions toward unbelievers. These verses are all from Mohamed’s early period in Mecca, but once he was kicked out of Mecca, his message, his words as well as his open behavior, underwent a dramatic transformation into a message advocating murder, pillage, rape, torture and slavery for unbelievers. And it is these later proclamations that are the real Islam, for,

2:106 “Whatever of Our revelations We repeal or cause to be forgotten, We will replace them with something superior or comparable. Do you not know that Allah has power over all things? Do you not know that Allah reigns sovereign over the heavens and earth and besides Him you have no protector or helper? Would you question your messenger [Mohamed] as Moses was questioned in his time? Those who exchange their faith for disbelief have gone astray from the right path.”

Remember that the next time someone quotes the early, Mecca-period,

Sura 2:256 “2:256: “There is no compulsion in religion.” (

A very small snippet that does not really reflect the context, but that’s the way “kitman” works.

)
. . .that later Mohamed said many, many things like this, abrogating his earlier “peaceful” verses:

Sura 9:29-33 “Make war upon such of those to whom the scriptures have been given as believe not in Allah. . . ”

Sura 8.12 “Remember thy lord has inspired the angels with the message. Give firmness to the believers and instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. Smite them above their necks and smite the fingertips of them.”

Sura 9.5 “When the sacred months have passed, kill the idolaters wherever you find them.”

Sura 47.4 “When you encounter the unbelievers, Strike off their heads. Until you have made a wide slaughter among them tie up the remaining captives.”

Go ahead, examine all the above in context.

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Just Stop It

Sometimes, I just can’t stop myself. No, wait. Honestly, I could; I just don’t want to.

A recent SPAM comment began,

I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own
blog and was curious what all is needed to get setup?

The first thing I’d do, were I you, is to enroll in a remedial English course. “Setup” is a noun that you used in place of the verb phrase, “set up.” Stop it. Then, learn to proofread your crap. “I know if this is off topic” is nonsense. Stop it.

Better yet, words? Stop using them, mmmK? Just stop it.

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Apples to Horseshoes

And other silly arguments.

FarceBook is so very educational that it’s hard to look away. It’s a train wreck composed of American education in collision with technological enabling. I almost despise myself for rubbernecking. Almost.

Straw man arguments? Check.

Appeal to emotion? Check.

Rampant illiteracy cloaked in an unwarranted, unassailable belief in one’s sterling education and wide-ranging grasp of facts? Check.

Non causa pro causa and ad hominem attacks wielded with assurance? Check.

Inigo Montoya wearing a perpetually puzzled look? (“You keep using that word. . . “) Check.

The Great Unwashed constantly mistaking correlation with causation? Check.

Invective mistaken for cogent argument? Check. (I particularly love shout-downs composed of “Racist!” and “Xenophobe!” as “winning arguments”. *head-desk* And such folks never even realize that anyone with more active brain cells than three-day-dead road kill sees ’em as idiot losers.)

Equating manatees and screwdrivers? Well, I’ve not seen this one in EXACTLY those terms, but I’ve seen analogs too many times to count.

Educational, I suppose. But still a train wreck. But then, that’s pretty much been the Internet since before the interwebs.

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Javascript Cookies™

Lo! these many years ago, I came up with this recipe (at an early version of twc). Good eats. I was feeling a wee tad “nibbly” one fine Saturday and hadn’t yet had my requisite dose of coffee, so I combined the two. BTW, make these a little more than double-sized, cool well and then slap a scoop of ice cream between two of them Re-chill, then serve. Sweet. Javascript Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches™.

Javascript Cookies™
Recipe Type: Cookie
Cuisine: Javahead
Author: David
Perfect snack food for Javaheads.
Ingredients
  • Javascript Cookies™ (perfect for a late night computer activity snack ;-))
  • Ingredients:
  • •2 cups all-purpose flour
  • •1/3 cup finely ground coffee powder*
  • •1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • •1/2 teaspoon salt
  • •2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened**
  • •2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • •1 large egg
  • •1 teaspoon vanilla
  • •5 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chop your own from your fav semi-sweet chocolate)
  • •1/2 cup hazelnuts or sliced almonds, finely chopped
  • •1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar for coating
Instructions
  1. Whisk together flour, coffee powder, baking powder, and salt in a bowl until combined.
  2. Beat together butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed (or get movin’ with your wire whisk!) until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes in a stand mixer or 4 minutes with a handheld. Add egg and vanilla, beating until combined. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until combined well. Add chocolate and nuts and mix until just combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough until firm, about 30 minutes.
  3. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 325°F.
  4. Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into a 1-inch ball, then flatten slightly with palm of your hand to form a 1/3-inch-thick disk and coat with confectioners sugar. Make more cookies in same manner, arranging them 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
  5. OK, that was the original recipe directions. this is easier, and the cookies taste just as good. Put 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar in a bowl (I used a soup bowl/LARGE mug with a handle). Drop the appropriate amount of dough in the bowl and swirl the bowl to roll it around. Pick the doughballs up and flatten them onto the ungreased baking sheets. No (or less) messy hands, quicker and easier.
  6. Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until they puff up and tops crack slightly, 8 to 10 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Recoat cookies with confectioners sugar, if you want (they’re sweet enough for me without the extra, but I have one tester who likes ’em that way). Oven times may vary. Add time if you make your cookies larger, of course.
  7. Too much dough? As chocolate/chocolate chip it refrigerates well for a short time. I’ll keep some of this dough around for a couple of days, then bake some cookies and see how it lasts.

 

*coffee powder: either from your fav ground coffee or fav whole beans (preferred); grind in a blade or burr coffee grinder until a fine, powdery consistency. If using a blade grinder, grind in bursts, as the coffee may overheat, especially if you’re grinding from whole beans, before becoming powdery.

BTW, I brought this forward from the deep, dark recesses of the shadow of twc’s past just because. Because my youngest nephew is getting married in June and his mom, my older sis, asked for a few of my fav recipes, and. . . he and his bride-to-be are both Javaheads. So, win-win-win-win. He and his lovely bride-to-be get a delish Javahead treat, I have this recipe brought forward (and updated a wee tad) and you, dear reader (oh, my, is it just one, now? *heh*) get to share in the delights of Javascript Cookies™.