Late for the Sky

TURKEY STOCK

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Sounds Funny

Today feels like Friday, being that it's the day before a long weekend, but instead of a news quiz I'll just put my favorite headlines from today:
"Is Britney Spears in the family way?" (are they suggesting she's pregnant or questioning the appropriateness of her dress and stage performance?)
"Exploding Cell Phones a Growing Problem"(If the brain tumors don't get you, the explosions will. Are these stories being spread by the people who make wired phones?)
"Ex-stripper, lover acquitted in Vegas casino heir’s death" (You don't know who these people are, but sex and violence sells newspapers. What an identity to have "ex-stripper" "ex-stripper's lover". Do they have t-shirts?"

This also (literally) sounds funny.
Background sounds to play on your computer and help you relax at work or home.
They have such serene "sound environments as "vibrating vacuum", "howling hairdryer", "typewriter" and "Rhythm of a Restaurant", complete with whining baby.
Even the ones that should be relaxing are not. "Crackling fire" sounds like some idiot opening cellophane wrapped candy next to you at the theater. "Roaring Ocean" sounds more like cars and truckks passing on rain-soaked streets outside your house. Compare this with "Sounds of New York, which opens with that same noise. Speaking of NOISE, try "Pure White Noise" to drive you up the wall with static.
I can't believe they missed "Dial up Modem Connection" in this Serenity NOT Now collection.

Champagne Chairs

Check out this competition. (Be sure to click on the "poster" link). I got direceted here by one of the architects/interior designers where I work. The challenge is to make a chair using only the wire cap and cork of no more than two bottles of champagne. The results are cool. I used to make little dogs out of the wire part; I never used the cork, which might have been good for fun, floppy ears and such. The dogs were quite primitive anyway and not competition-winning things.
Karen hates champagne and I don't care about it that much, so now we don't buy it and I don't know where I would come up with two bottles of it. Besides, I don't think there could possibly be a new, more interesting design than the ones already done last year. Maybe if they made the rules that you had to drink the two bottles of champagne first, it would level the playing field, so to speak.

Food Court Druids

This book looks like it might be interesting to browse through while you are sitting in Barnes and Noble, drinking your Starbuck's. And I'm sure there is a idiosycrology label that applies to those who do that.
These labels remind me of Rich Hall's once popular Sniglits but of a specific type.

Applesauce Day

Every Fall at our house we make applesauce and today's the day. I don't remember when we started (and Karen is in the shower, so I can't ask her). It may have been before Allie was born, but my first memories are of Allie helping us when she was small. We started her out washing the apples and doing simple things, but she wanted to crank the apple peeler. This device peels, cores and spiral slices the apples. That was Allie's job for several years until she decided she had better things to do than make applesauce with her parents. Now it's just Karen and me.
We get Melrose apples. We used to get these out at a farm about 45 minutes away. The advantages of that were a drive in the country on a cold, clear Fall day, and the apple tarts, caramel apples and other treats we bought along with the apples. Now we go to Pipkin's Market in Montgomery. This is a nice fruit and vegetable market, close to our home, that has grown over the years that we've lived in nearby Blue Ash.
After washing and peeling the apples, we slice the spirals into smaller hunks and put them in large pots with a little apple cider and maybe some cinnamon (Karen's still in the shower and this part is her job along with slicing and trimming). I used to be just the washer of apples, transporter of peels to the compost heap, carrier of sliced apples to the pot and stirrer of the pot (the latter task does not really fit my personality). Now our workforce has declined by 1/3 and I also peel.
We also used to make a lot more of the sauce than we do now since Allie resigned.
We make some of our applesauce chunky and some smooth. A large portion gets put in a container and frozen until Hanukkah for eating with latkes.
The rest is used for other things, including topping toaster waffles for breakfast. Our applesauce is mostly stored in the freezer in plastic tubs that once contained frozen Skyline Chili.
Besides the right kind of apples and the proper tools, making applesauce calls for appropriate music. Here is some music to make applesauce by:
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Red Clay Ramblers
Stoney Lonesome
Asleep at the Wheel

Four Quizes for Friday

Hard One. (You have to register, but it's free)
Medium. (register - free)
Easier if you read the news, my blog and Dave Barry.
Looked like fun but the resulting analysis of my stress level and "problems" was depressing.

Made You Look

Desperate for Ratings, ABC is getting lots of free press for Monday Night Football and Deperate Housewives because of their two minute intro to the football game this week. I did not see it but I can't escape the stories and opinion pieces about it.
Until today, I had not read more than the headlines of these articles, assuming they were all about the sex aspect. The implied sex would be considered by some as inappropriate on a "family" oriented show like MNF. Violent physical contact between steroid-enhanced men is okay, but not affectionate phyical contact between one of those men and a breastily-enhanced woman. ABC knew the controversy would occur and that both shows involved would be ratings-enhanced.
Now someone has suggested that racial controversy is involved as well. There are those who would be more upset because the implied sex was to occur between a black male and a white female. Until I saw this article I never made that connection. I didn't see the actual thing on Monday, but I had seen pictures like the one above and I never thought about the fact that they were different races. Now I wonder if ABC thought about it. Did they expect that the situation was controversy-enhanced by the racial differences?

Burn Baby Burn

This article talks about ways to reduce calorie intake without significantly changing what you eat.
Within it is an interactive quiz which calculates how many calories you burn.
The problem I have is that many of the tasks are done simultaneously (e.g. working in an office and talking on the phone.) Should my total minutes per day add up to 1,440 (24X60) or can they add up to more? Should I exclude the time I am making personal calls in the office?
Meanwhile:

Hardee's introduces new mega-calorie Monster Thickburger

JIM SALTER

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS - As many fast-food chains are catering to the health-conscious, Hardee's is introducing the biggest and thickest of its Thickburgers - one with enough calories to make Ronald McDonald blush.

The St. Louis-based chain on Monday rolled out its Monster Thickburger - two 1/3-pound slabs of Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun. The sandwich alone sells for $5.49, $7.09 with fries and a soda.

Even a news release touted the Monster - at 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat_ as "a monument to decadence." Add fries and a soda and a single meal would involve more calories and fat than most people should get in a day.

Another Coincidence

Today (Sunday) I turned on the Comedy Channel and itwas in the middle of "The 100 Best Standup Comics". Well, not in the middle, they were at #33. The middle would be 50 -- or 51. Anyway, I've seen the show before. While it was on, I got on the computer and found that some of my blog entries had received spam comments. I went to clean them off and the first one I went to was "The Art of Comedy". Okay, I knew I'd seen it before but forgotten I'd blogged on it. What a coincidence to go to it right at that time. Then, later, I went to Susan's blog and what did she blog about? And, the thing is, she never blogs on the weekend.
What does it all mean?

In Other News......

I had an advantage in this week's news quiz. I can't miss a question about when the Berlin Wall fell because it happened the year Allie was born.

Outsourcing McDonald's Lawsuits

A woman in Russia has sued McDonald's over spilled coffee. She is claiming $14 in medical costs. That wouldn't even cover my copay for a doctor's visit, but is probably the equivalent two weeks pay in Russia. She is also asking for $3,500 in "moral damages". I don't know how her morals were damaged by spilled coffee, especially since it did not fall in her lap. (Maybe bystanders descended upon her to lick the precious $1 worth of coffee off of her, I don't know). But her claim is a mere $3,500? I guess that must be like winning the lottery over there. But to McDonald's it will cost more to have a US lawyer spend 5 minutes reading the documents than to settle the lawsuit.
I guess this is why companies like Haliburton are anxious to work overseas. They can have a major securities fraud lawsuit in Iraq and the potential penalty is no more than one US three-martini lunch.
In order to bolster the Russian economy, US personal injury lawyers are being dispatched to train their Russian counterparts in how to expoit frivilous lawsuits for the enrichment of the plaintiff and, most of all, themselves. The client still gets only $3,500, but the attorney gets million$$.

F-ing Private Ryan

Several stations will not air Saving Private Ryan because they fear huge fines from the FCC. The movie contains utterances of the F-word which can not be bleeped out because Steven Spielberg does not want the movie altered. The FCC will not respond to requests for an advance ruling on whether there would be fines or not. It is absurd to allow TV shows with near nudity, simulated sex and violence but not allow the F-word in the context of this intense war movie. I think I was right about what the F in FCC is for. They are f-ed up.
Happy Veterans Day.

Revisiting the Classics

This just in: Palestinian Leader, Yasser Arafat is still dead.
And now to repeat today's top headline for the hearing impaired is the head of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing.
THIS JUST IN: PALESTINIAN LEADER, YASSER ARAFAT IS STILL DEAD!
Ah, I hope SNL has Chevy Chase sitting in for Tina Fey on Weekend Update this Saturday.

Forget Iraq - Save the Ivory Coast

Typically, the US does not get involved in African genocide, civil wars or other battles. After all, the countries involved usually have no oil or other important resources.
Now there is a conflict that should spur Americans to take up arms. Ivory Coast warplanes attacked French Peacekeepers in a section of the country held by rebels. The French are retaliating but there is widespread violence and chaos. Naturally, you think we should help the French. Are you crazy?
My concern is this:
"The violence has also shut down cocoa exports in the world’s largest producer, closing ports that ship more than 40 percent of the world’s raw material for chocolate, cocoa traders said Tuesday."
Clearly, before the French surrender and things get worse, the US needs to send troops to occupy the country, install Democracy and get the cocoa flowing again. Unless these critical raw materials get to chocolatiers soon, the Valentines Day supplies will be threatened.
Let's roll.

Sorry - One More Thought (Or Two)

Terrence had a couple of posts about why he is not a Republican or Democrat. He had some good thoughts on the blurring of the concepts of liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican. See Terrences Nov 2 and 3 entries.
Susan had a post about "Plan 2008" which should have been called "Don't it Make My Red States Blue?" What I would like to see is the political map represented not in blue and red, but in shades of purple. Ohio, for example, was very closely split between Kerry and Bush. It's not all red. I think the winners get a very distorted view of their victory by seeing all that red, which totally discounts the votes against them in that state. It would represent what would happen if the electoral votes were not winner take all. I realize Bush still won the popular vote, I just would like people to realize that "the heartland" and the coasts are not so totally one way or the other.
There's a blurring of the labels, there should be a blurring of the colors.

CAN WE MAKE THE RED STATES BLUE?
By John Kerry

Hoped Ohio would go blue
Heartland's red, through and through,
I wish someone knew
How to make the red states blue

Can we find what went wrong?
States turned red all night long
Hey, what can we do
Now to make the red states blue?

He screwed up Iraq, he told some lies
I had war service, he had alibis
He lost all those jobs but still won the prize
The one edge he had: a difference in wives

Hope's not on the way, it turned to crap
There's red states all over the map
So, liberals, are we screwed?
Or can we make the red states
can we make the red states
Can we make the red states blue?

What A Co-inky-dink

Sometime a go I started noticing a series of minor coincidences occuring around me. I thought, "I should write these all down, but I know I won't." Coincidently, I didn't. Now I can only remember one of them.
(Now, these are not mysterious or astounding or special. It's just that there was a lot of them.)

I was at an art fair and I heard them announce that Ms. Soandso had won a prize. They said she could not bethere because she had just started college at Wellesley. At that point I turned around and the first person i saw had a Wellesley sweatshirt on. No big deal by itself, but what if it happens every day?
It started again recently.
Yesterday there were three. It would take too long to describe each of them but in one case I turned on the TV and saw part of "Good Eats" where Alton Brown refered to a part of an earlier episode and then showed a clip from that episode. Four hours later, I turned on the TV and "Good Eats" was on again, showing that previous episode, right at about two seconds before the part I had seen earlier." Again, not exciting, maybe not even interesting. I bet you were just thinking the same thing. What a coincidence.

One Last Political Thought - I Promise

Bush - 59 million votes 274 electoral votes
Kerry 54 million votes 252 electoral votes
Look at the numbers. What do you see?
“President Bush ran forthrightly on a clear agenda for this nation’s future and the nation responded by giving him a mandate,” Vice President Dick Cheney said.
"I earned capital ... political capital," Bush said of his margin of victory in the popular vote, "and now I intend to spend it."
I guess the rose colored glasses make all the blue votes look red.
Major sigh.

For Gays It's No-Hio

Ohio had an proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Many states had such an amendment but Ohio's is considered the most far-reaching, defined by ABC news as "to the right of George Bush.

The amendment was opposed by our Repblican Governor and Republican Senators from Ohio because,
"The law not only bans same-sex marriage, but also forbids the state from recognizing gay marriages, civil unions or domestic partner agreements legalized outside the state and makes it declares it illegal to provide state benefits to gay couples.
But the proposed amendment would appear to expand that to include even heterosexuals in common law relationships. It says that government entities cannot create a legal status for unmarried people that "intends to approximate" various elements of marriage."
ABC has announced that the amendment has passed. (Meanwhile, they are running results across the bottom of the screen showing that it is losing.)
It HAS actually passed, (I switched to NBC) and that makes me very sad. I believe the opponents did not make enough effort, or even any effort to get out the word that many Republicans leaders opposed this amendment.
Meanwhile, Kerry is leading with 1% of the votes counted - but too close to call. People are still voting well after the official closing time of the polls. As long as they were in line at closing, they can vote. Some lines are reported to be hours long. People are walking away because the lines are too long - that is sickening, that it is so screwed up.

Now, Wednesday morning, the newspaper says there were "few problems". I think the lines were a MAJOR problem. How many people didn't get in line because it was too long? How many walked away?

Comedy Quiz

I finally got 100% on a NY Times "Noodle Nudger" quiz without guessing.
Quiz #79 about stand up comedy.
You may have to register to see the quiz - but it's free.

Why You Should Vote

While some may not be happy with the choices, the only way to improve the system is to participate. We are privileged to be able to vote for our leaders. Not everyone in the world gets to do that.
Here's how it worked years ago in England:

(from Monty Python & the Holy Grail)

ARTHUR
Well ... I AM king.

DENNIS
Oh, very nice. King, eh! I expect you've got a palace and fine
clothes and courtiers and plenty of food. And how d'you get that?
By exploiting the workers! By hanging on to outdated imperialist
dogma which perpetuates the social and economic differences in our
society! If there's EVER going to be any progress ...

An OLD WOMAN appears.

ARTHUR
How d'you do, good lady ... I am Arthur, King of the Britons ...
can you tell me who lives in that castle?

OLD WOMAN
King of the WHO?

ARTHUR
The Britons.
OLD WOMAN
Who are the Britons?

ARTHUR
All of us are ... we are all Britons.
DENNIS winks at the OLD WOMAN.
... and I am your king ....

OLD WOMAN
Well, I didn't vote for you.

ARTHUR
You don't vote for kings.

OLD WOMAN
Well, how did you become king, then?

ARTHUR
The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite,
held Excalibur aloft from the bosom of the water to signify by
Divine Providence ... that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur ...
That is why I am your king!

DENNIS
Look, strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out
swords ... that's no basis for a system of government. Supreme
executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from
some farcical aquatic ceremony.

ARTHUR
Be quiet!

DENNIS
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power
just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

ARTHUR
Shut up!

DENNIS
I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some
moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, people would
put me away!

ARTHUR
(Grabbing him by the collar)
Shut up, will you. Shut up!

DENNIS
Ah! NOW ... we see the violence inherent in the system.
QUOTE.
Don't forget to RSVP for the party - see two entries below this one

Kerry Victory Guaranteed

As noted here last week, a Washington's loss to Green Bay yesterday means the incumbent will be voted out of the White House this year. So Bush supporters might as well just not vote.