Every Sunday is quiet here. People in this community go to church. have family dinners, and spend the afternoons having fun.
Today, the Sunday solemnity is especially deep. People are staying home and staying in. Everyone who was going anywhere left hours ago and have now reached their destination.
A sacred hush has fallen across the land.
It won't last, of course. There will soon be jumping and shouting and cursing heard from many homes. There will be eating and eating and eating. There will be drinking to go with the eating, and more drinking for the cursing. Dishes will be broken, windows will shatter, depending on whose team is winning and who the refs are favoring with willful blindness. There may be broken noses and there will eventually be broken automobiles and broken families.
Who cares, now, what the future holds? Who cares for the rest of the world? Who cares that the day of the Lord (for many) has become the more important day of the football? Who cares that a day of rest has become a day of frenzy? Who cares that the serenity of the evening will be broken and shattered?
It's Super Bowl Sunday, a final day of excess before winter is thrown off and natural light returns to the world.
Tonight, when the Madness has ended, I will begin to believe in Spring.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Prove it, groundhogs.
Another year, another day for the national joke. Will the groundhog see his shadow? Did the groundhog see his shadow? Is it only six more weeks until spring, or do we have six more weeks of winter?
Which groundhog should we believe? Phil saw his shadow; the local equivalent did not. Which is right, six weeks til spring, six weeks of winter? The debate, while good-natured, rages on.
Perhaps, just maybe, there is help. Perhaps there is an answer! I will look high and low, and in the most obvious places, and I will find the answer.
From Feb 2 until Mar 21 is between six and seven weeks. From Groundhog Day until the first day of spring is approximately six weeks!
Let's all take a deep breath of relief. We are free to believe both or neither groundhog. It remains winter for six more weeks, when it becomes spring according to the calendar!
Just like every year.
Which groundhog should we believe? Phil saw his shadow; the local equivalent did not. Which is right, six weeks til spring, six weeks of winter? The debate, while good-natured, rages on.
Perhaps, just maybe, there is help. Perhaps there is an answer! I will look high and low, and in the most obvious places, and I will find the answer.
From Feb 2 until Mar 21 is between six and seven weeks. From Groundhog Day until the first day of spring is approximately six weeks!
Let's all take a deep breath of relief. We are free to believe both or neither groundhog. It remains winter for six more weeks, when it becomes spring according to the calendar!
Just like every year.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
My Turn: Campaign 2012
At least I waited until it actually has been 2012 for a little while. Damn politicians and the media -- especially the media -- started back in August with the budget hang-up. Which, of course, was the other guy's fault. The other party's fault.
Thank goodness there's no need for a Democrat circus. That would detract sooo much from the Republican's parties. And we, the Great American Public, would have to find other things to worry about, like how to pay the doctors and where to find a job.
The Republican primaries have pretty much amused me. So far, the first one, New Hampshire, has been my favorite. Everyone was voting for Romney.
"Why?" the after-vote pollsters asked. "Is it his politics? His policies? His platform? His personality? His looks?"
"No," the Republican voters answered. "We just voted for him because we think he can beat Obama."
I'm still wondering what he's supposed to beat Obama with.
Thank goodness there's no need for a Democrat circus. That would detract sooo much from the Republican's parties. And we, the Great American Public, would have to find other things to worry about, like how to pay the doctors and where to find a job.
The Republican primaries have pretty much amused me. So far, the first one, New Hampshire, has been my favorite. Everyone was voting for Romney.
"Why?" the after-vote pollsters asked. "Is it his politics? His policies? His platform? His personality? His looks?"
"No," the Republican voters answered. "We just voted for him because we think he can beat Obama."
I'm still wondering what he's supposed to beat Obama with.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Cooking and Looking
Cooking shows used to be about cooking. About recipes, and following the directions. Cooking shows were the original reality TV. The smooth blends, the careful combining of dry and wet ingredients, every step demonstrated and shown, step-by-step. Oven temps and burner settings and the right type of pan. They told how to do it all, what it should look like, how it should smell.
Now, there are many, many, MANY variations of cooking shows. They have little connection to the follow-the-recipe shows of old.
Actually, they are not cooking shows. They are eating shows.
You can watch 'chefs' eat their way around a city, the important thing being who can most quickly eat the most. Any cooking or flavor components are there as clues to the next food you have to quickly ingest in spite of flavor, texture, or taste.
You can watch a fat man (how did he get that way?) wander all over the country eating the world's largest hamburger or the great steak of blank. Yeah, just watch that man eat!
Of course, the shows do go into the kitchens. They show you a powdery spice mix and tell you here's the secret ingredients -- not that you know any more about what the ingredients are. They show you how it's put on and how the food is cooked and the way to build the sandwich, if there is a sandwich.
Then there are the 'kitchen' shows. Contestants line up at prep tables and they are all supposed to make something, sometimes the same things, out of identical ingredients. They show all the cooks doing the same or different things. One contestant uses a skillet, one boils, one broils, another bakes. Sometimes the cook will tell the camera, 'I think broiling will preserve the flavor without destroying the integrity of the selection.' Huh?
I know I want to try that for supper tonight.
Then they have to be judged. The judges must consider whether the grape leaf should be tilted more to the right or the left, and if the sauce dribbled across the plate is writing in secret code or not. (Points off if they can read it.) Finally, they must decide if the food is edible enough for the prize. It doesn't matter if the idea of the food is appetizing -- that's completely nonessential.
I, for one, do not think fish flavored ice cream is ever edible, no matter how much cream and sugar is mixed in. Because that's a favorite 'strategy'. If you don't know what else to do with it, make it ice cream. YUM!
Why do people watch this? What is the fascination?
Food needs to be tasted. It needs to be smelled. It needs to be felt. One can't know the texture of a blend from looking at it on the screen. One can't inhale the aroma of good things coming together in a skillet or an oven. Most of all, one can't taste the result.
So why watch? If you want to see fat people eat, go to the fair. If you want to watch a circus, go to the circus. If you want to enjoy food, fix it for yourself. That's what appeases the appetite.
Now, there are many, many, MANY variations of cooking shows. They have little connection to the follow-the-recipe shows of old.
Actually, they are not cooking shows. They are eating shows.
You can watch 'chefs' eat their way around a city, the important thing being who can most quickly eat the most. Any cooking or flavor components are there as clues to the next food you have to quickly ingest in spite of flavor, texture, or taste.
You can watch a fat man (how did he get that way?) wander all over the country eating the world's largest hamburger or the great steak of blank. Yeah, just watch that man eat!
Of course, the shows do go into the kitchens. They show you a powdery spice mix and tell you here's the secret ingredients -- not that you know any more about what the ingredients are. They show you how it's put on and how the food is cooked and the way to build the sandwich, if there is a sandwich.
Then there are the 'kitchen' shows. Contestants line up at prep tables and they are all supposed to make something, sometimes the same things, out of identical ingredients. They show all the cooks doing the same or different things. One contestant uses a skillet, one boils, one broils, another bakes. Sometimes the cook will tell the camera, 'I think broiling will preserve the flavor without destroying the integrity of the selection.' Huh?
I know I want to try that for supper tonight.
Then they have to be judged. The judges must consider whether the grape leaf should be tilted more to the right or the left, and if the sauce dribbled across the plate is writing in secret code or not. (Points off if they can read it.) Finally, they must decide if the food is edible enough for the prize. It doesn't matter if the idea of the food is appetizing -- that's completely nonessential.
I, for one, do not think fish flavored ice cream is ever edible, no matter how much cream and sugar is mixed in. Because that's a favorite 'strategy'. If you don't know what else to do with it, make it ice cream. YUM!
Why do people watch this? What is the fascination?
Food needs to be tasted. It needs to be smelled. It needs to be felt. One can't know the texture of a blend from looking at it on the screen. One can't inhale the aroma of good things coming together in a skillet or an oven. Most of all, one can't taste the result.
So why watch? If you want to see fat people eat, go to the fair. If you want to watch a circus, go to the circus. If you want to enjoy food, fix it for yourself. That's what appeases the appetite.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
where is winter?
When I went to get my mail today, I saw the daffodils in my flower bed. Full buds, lush green leaves, several inches high. How they got that big without my seeing them, I don't know, but there they were.
It's still January, and this is still Ohio.
We've had some snow, a few cold snaps, but not really any winter yet. It hasn't been really cold for a really long time (like a whole week.) We haven't had to go out and shovel the sidewalks. We've barely had to salt the roads.
It sounds like a good winter, doesn't it? Makes you wonder what I'm complaining about and why?
I can answer that. I've lived hereabouts my whole life. If we don't have weather in its 'prescribed courses' -- we pay.
We pay with day after day of tornado alerts. We pay with droughts or cold in July when the crops need warmth, or wild winds, or something.
When we have mild Januaries, we often pay with frigid Februaries and meltless Marches. In fact, we get snowed in in March, if we haven't got our fair share of the white stuff before then.
A green Christmas, any native can tell you, often means a white Easter. (Or opening Day, depending on how you reckon the seasons.)
Neighbors, family, and friends -- do not be like those precipitate daffodils. Do not creep out from your cover until it is the season for creeping. Do not be caught unprepared and unaware.
It may seem that winter has snuck in and snuck out, but chances are that wily old man is waiting for you to step outside in your shirtsleeves. He will slam your door in your face -- maybe using those March winds?-- and then he will layer you beneath the cotton flakes of snow.
BEWARE!
It's still January, and this is still Ohio.
We've had some snow, a few cold snaps, but not really any winter yet. It hasn't been really cold for a really long time (like a whole week.) We haven't had to go out and shovel the sidewalks. We've barely had to salt the roads.
It sounds like a good winter, doesn't it? Makes you wonder what I'm complaining about and why?
I can answer that. I've lived hereabouts my whole life. If we don't have weather in its 'prescribed courses' -- we pay.
We pay with day after day of tornado alerts. We pay with droughts or cold in July when the crops need warmth, or wild winds, or something.
When we have mild Januaries, we often pay with frigid Februaries and meltless Marches. In fact, we get snowed in in March, if we haven't got our fair share of the white stuff before then.
A green Christmas, any native can tell you, often means a white Easter. (Or opening Day, depending on how you reckon the seasons.)
Neighbors, family, and friends -- do not be like those precipitate daffodils. Do not creep out from your cover until it is the season for creeping. Do not be caught unprepared and unaware.
It may seem that winter has snuck in and snuck out, but chances are that wily old man is waiting for you to step outside in your shirtsleeves. He will slam your door in your face -- maybe using those March winds?-- and then he will layer you beneath the cotton flakes of snow.
BEWARE!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Where, oh, (under)Wear
There was a news story recently about 'found' panties being hung along the Purple People Bridge in Cincinnati.( http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Panties-Found-Along-Ohio-Road-To-Be-Hung-on-Bridge/jZle-W5AP0W-0BAU_UwfDw.cspx ) The panties display is intended to bring attention to cervical cancer.
No where does it say what will be done with the panties afterwards.
Will they be allowed to hang until they've fallen off or blown away? Imagine boating beneath the bridges and having women's undergarments fluttering into your vessel. Is your woman going to believe that if she isn't there at the time? Unless that story was also to make news.
Will they be washed and sanitized and repackaged into zip-lock(T) bags, tagged as sanitized, and redistributed to the poor? Auctioned off in odd lots?
I haven't been able to find the answer, although there has to be a way, especially in this information age.
The pantie disposal problem made me wonder, too. If you were in desperate need of underwear, and had no way to get any on your own, where would you go? Who would you ask? How particular would you, personally, be? Many people find the thought of second hand underwear as totally disgusting. Of course, many people think underwear unnecessary and nonessential, anyway.
I don't know what your thoughts and feelings are on the matter.
I don't care.
But I think it's worth thinking about, if you needed these items, what would you do? Who would you ask, where would you go? What would you accept, if your alternative was doing without?
Maybe you could throw a new pack into a charity basket every now and then.
Or, when you pass under the bridge, and catch an awareness-raising garment, you can donate it back to someone's cause.
Thanks.
No where does it say what will be done with the panties afterwards.
Will they be allowed to hang until they've fallen off or blown away? Imagine boating beneath the bridges and having women's undergarments fluttering into your vessel. Is your woman going to believe that if she isn't there at the time? Unless that story was also to make news.
Will they be washed and sanitized and repackaged into zip-lock(T) bags, tagged as sanitized, and redistributed to the poor? Auctioned off in odd lots?
I haven't been able to find the answer, although there has to be a way, especially in this information age.
The pantie disposal problem made me wonder, too. If you were in desperate need of underwear, and had no way to get any on your own, where would you go? Who would you ask? How particular would you, personally, be? Many people find the thought of second hand underwear as totally disgusting. Of course, many people think underwear unnecessary and nonessential, anyway.
I don't know what your thoughts and feelings are on the matter.
I don't care.
But I think it's worth thinking about, if you needed these items, what would you do? Who would you ask, where would you go? What would you accept, if your alternative was doing without?
Maybe you could throw a new pack into a charity basket every now and then.
Or, when you pass under the bridge, and catch an awareness-raising garment, you can donate it back to someone's cause.
Thanks.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Snow and ice/ not so nice
well, we had another 'winter storm' last night. This one was mostly ice, making everything slick and slippery. (Yes, both.) It was a Friday night, no big sports events. If we have to have a winter storm, that's the time to have one.
With no sunshine this morning after, the aftermath hasn't looked too impressive. That makes it more dangerous in many instances.
But it could have been so much worse.
Chicago and points not-so-far north measured snow in feet. Winds and temperatures didn't melt anything, to say the least. Traffic pictures were horrible. Seemed to be miles of cars going nowhere on the freeways. I hope there were plenty of blankets, plenty of juice, lots of blankets. I hope there was enough to share for the few and the fools who set out unprepared.
There were accidents here, too, of course, but no national station is broadcasting our stopped traffic.
This winter has been cold, but not too wintry -- as yet. It always makes me uneasy when the forecasters call for big storms that turn out to be little ones. It's not unusual for winter to not 'hit' until after Groundhog's Day. The cold usually makes an earlier appearance.
I don't want to see winter storms, but I really hate it when they are predicted to the point of hysteria, and then the reality is fractional.
I should be as thankful for that as I think people should be that they aren't more northern. But, like them, I am only annoyed that we are all inconvenienced by whatever has come our way.
And I hope everyone on that horrible roadway is safely tucked in at home tonight.
With no sunshine this morning after, the aftermath hasn't looked too impressive. That makes it more dangerous in many instances.
But it could have been so much worse.
Chicago and points not-so-far north measured snow in feet. Winds and temperatures didn't melt anything, to say the least. Traffic pictures were horrible. Seemed to be miles of cars going nowhere on the freeways. I hope there were plenty of blankets, plenty of juice, lots of blankets. I hope there was enough to share for the few and the fools who set out unprepared.
There were accidents here, too, of course, but no national station is broadcasting our stopped traffic.
This winter has been cold, but not too wintry -- as yet. It always makes me uneasy when the forecasters call for big storms that turn out to be little ones. It's not unusual for winter to not 'hit' until after Groundhog's Day. The cold usually makes an earlier appearance.
I don't want to see winter storms, but I really hate it when they are predicted to the point of hysteria, and then the reality is fractional.
I should be as thankful for that as I think people should be that they aren't more northern. But, like them, I am only annoyed that we are all inconvenienced by whatever has come our way.
And I hope everyone on that horrible roadway is safely tucked in at home tonight.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
life love and other dissed illusions: Who gets the Credit for That?
life love and other dissed illusions: Who gets the Credit for That?: As part of stabilizing the economy, the money people sitting in their high-rise offices have made a bit of noise about 'fixing' credit-money...
Who gets the Credit for That?
As part of stabilizing the economy, the money people sitting in their high-rise offices have made a bit of noise about 'fixing' credit-money-grubbing mean old banks. They have busy-busy-busily passed laws that 'correct' the way these greedy places up interest rates and weasel out of paying skymiles and the other nonsense that add to the appeal of using certain credit cards as opposed to others. (What's in your wallet?)
Down here on the ground, we're glad to see these changes. Someday, they may change something for those of us who survive paycheck-to-paycheck and pay cash, check, or money order.
We'd like to see some real credit reform.
Something that matters.
Something that makes sense.
Credit reform could start with credit reports not being used for non-credit reasons. Such as getting a job. More and more often, even in retail work, hard-working candidates are being refused jobs because their credit is bad. (You know, possible employer, that just might be why they are looking for a job. Did that not occur to you?) Let's look at an employee's WORK RECORD to decide if he will WORK for us.
Then there's buying insurance. Why should anyone's auto insurance rate be based on their credit history? Shouldn't insurability and the cost thereof be based on the driving record? What do old doctor bills and unpaid utilities from childhood have to do with the need for auto insurance.
The next step is limiting credit reports to pertinent information for the situation. An example of this is apartment rental. Should an individual who has been renting for thirty years, never been evicted, never been sued for unpaid rent, never had to pay (extra) for damages -- should this person be turned away from an apartment because of unpaid doctor bills? What's right about that?
On that topic, some things just shouldn't be used at all. When the economy crashed, many people had to let their homes go into foreclosure. It was the only way the lenders would even look at refinancing. The people who did manage to refinance and are still managing to hold onto their homes are now being punished by following the protocols established by their lenders. They didn't want foreclosure, they wanted to pay a little less for a longer period of time.
Hooray for credit reform. Now that it's all been smugly settled in the bailed out offices, let's get it out on the streets, where real people can use it.
Down here on the ground, we're glad to see these changes. Someday, they may change something for those of us who survive paycheck-to-paycheck and pay cash, check, or money order.
We'd like to see some real credit reform.
Something that matters.
Something that makes sense.
Credit reform could start with credit reports not being used for non-credit reasons. Such as getting a job. More and more often, even in retail work, hard-working candidates are being refused jobs because their credit is bad. (You know, possible employer, that just might be why they are looking for a job. Did that not occur to you?) Let's look at an employee's WORK RECORD to decide if he will WORK for us.
Then there's buying insurance. Why should anyone's auto insurance rate be based on their credit history? Shouldn't insurability and the cost thereof be based on the driving record? What do old doctor bills and unpaid utilities from childhood have to do with the need for auto insurance.
The next step is limiting credit reports to pertinent information for the situation. An example of this is apartment rental. Should an individual who has been renting for thirty years, never been evicted, never been sued for unpaid rent, never had to pay (extra) for damages -- should this person be turned away from an apartment because of unpaid doctor bills? What's right about that?
On that topic, some things just shouldn't be used at all. When the economy crashed, many people had to let their homes go into foreclosure. It was the only way the lenders would even look at refinancing. The people who did manage to refinance and are still managing to hold onto their homes are now being punished by following the protocols established by their lenders. They didn't want foreclosure, they wanted to pay a little less for a longer period of time.
Hooray for credit reform. Now that it's all been smugly settled in the bailed out offices, let's get it out on the streets, where real people can use it.
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