Right Wing, Left Wing, Buffalo Wing

Egypt is all over the news today. Don't get me wrong, it is definitely news. It's news because there is plenty of great video footage of people at risk. It's news because Egypt is in the middle east where all the scary Muslims live. It's news because our pundit class loves having something to pontificate about. Video, fear, bloviating blowfish; yeah, that's news. See gratuitous video footage here...


...but what are the facts

• There is a huge popular uprising in Egypt.
• Mubarak is in trouble.
• Mubarak was our guy.
• Mubarak is kind of a dick.
• This might be a good thing, it might be a bad thing.
• All those gibbering buffoons on television and the radio have no idea if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Facts, there really aren't a lot of them on the news. So I'm letting this one go for awhile. We can check back in with the whole revolution thing later. No, I'm not being cavalier. I'm a fat dude at a computer. If you want to hear me blather on at least it should be about something I know. A sure thing. Like Buffalo Wings.

Super Bowl is this Sunday and you know you want buffalo wings. Now, for me the problem is I want a lot of wings, but the best way to make buffalo wings is by deep frying the living crap out of them. It's Superbowl Sunday, do you really want to combine 370 degree oil and drunken football viewers. Hell, even under the best of circumstances the mess alone makes it almost not worth the effort. Still, Mmmm buffalo wings! Hot, Hot, Buffalo Wings!

So, plan B,


20 chicken wings, split and tips discarded
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup red pepper sauce
3/4 cup tomato sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1) Kitchen shears, it's the easy way to section chicken, just snip. Save the tips for stock. 2) Spread the chicken bits on a couple of sheet pans. Leave room, you want maximum crispage.3) Put the pans in a preheated  375 degree oven for a half hour. 4) The sauce ingredients are just a suggestion. Lose the chili powder for allspice, now they are jerk wings. Lose the chili+cayenne, add brown sugar+soy sauce you have teriyaki. 5) Sauce those bad boys. 6) If you can wait out a second trip to the oven more heat will make the sauce set up. Nice! Oh yeah, make-um hot!

It's half time, crack a cold one, pass around the wings and skip the half-time show. If you have to have a plan B make it a party.

Sunday Morning.

Everybody wants you to take sides. You're a liberal. You're a Conservative. Socialist! Fascist! Communist! Anarchist! What... everrrrrr! Don't you just get tired of it. The God thing is the same way. Christen! Jew! Muslim! Atheist! What... everrrr! I know, I know, being an Agnostic is wishy washy middle of the road stuff. Yeah, yeah, the only thing in the middle of the road is yellow lines and dead animals. Oh well, I'll take my chances.

Now if we picked our religion by who has the best tunes... well that's a different story. Sorry Hindus, Oh well Buddhists, later Church of Bob, and have you ever been to a jamming atheist party? It's nothing but German death metal and rolling in broken glass. You up for that? I didn't think so.



Now that's what I'm talking about. Christianity has got the tunes. Oh yeah! I am definitely sanctified today!

As for breakfast there will be no cooking for this guy. I'm shooting down the road to Al's Diner. By the time I sit down Kelly will have a coffee and a glass of ice water in front to me. I'll pretend to read the menu so as not to seem too eager, but I'm having the #2 black board special. Over easy eggs, salami, capicola, provolone, on a Piro's Italian stick. I add the black pepper and the sriracha sauce. It's a party in my mouth. It's as good as sex and it lasts longer. Sorry ladies.

Plus, plus coffee, plus the Sunday paper, plus a grilled blueberry muffin, plus home-fries, plus more coffee, plus, plus,plus, I'm caffeinated now. Oh baby! it's a spiritual moment. Sorry Atheists.

Revolution

Revolutions happen all the time. Real revolutions. Sometimes against brutal oppressors and sometimes at the behest of brutal oppressors. Still, there are a few things that all revolutions have in common. It's about the people being fed up with their government, the people being willing to fight the government, and the people being willing to risk everything to change the government. Oh yeah, one more thing, it's a bad idea to bring a briefcase to a tank fight.

In Nicaragua you had to figure that masked dudes with guns indicate that things are not going well...

In the Czech Republic facing down Soviet Tanks (with out briefcases, unlike those savvy Chinese in the top picture) was probably pretty risky.

 In the Philippines using machine guns to control Nuns seemed reasonable, you wouldn't want to turn your back on that pair in the front.

The Polish had Hitler, Stalin Khruschev, and Brezhnev from the 30's to the 80's before they were finally free.

In Tunisia the police are obviously always willing to help.

Egypt may be our friend, but not a friend if you are a Coptic Christen. Police state much?

So, I tried to show all kinds of revolutions against all kinds of tyranny. There seems to be some common themes when dealing with tyrants. Tanks, machine guns, billie clubs, tear gas, police, and soldiers all being used against everyday people. That's a revolution. Why I'd  have to say that fighting against tyranny seems dangerous, you'd better be ready for the worse...

 ... and you certainly don't want to stand out to the police...

... no good can come of taunting savage dictators...

... run ladies, run! in country ruled by monsters like our own a thuggish crackdown could happen at any moment...

When do the tanks show up? The next thing you know there will be a trail of tears and crushed lawn chairs from Washington to Any town USA. He might take our health care, but he will never take our freedom!

We Already Paid!

So I knew my attempts to play nice, stay calm, and advocate for a new, third, better, way wouldn't last. Still I had high hopes that I'd last longer than my fourth post, nope. State of the Union is always an entertainment fave, You have the Pubs, from their orange skinned corporate stooge leader to lobbying hating tea-party newbies, the dems, mostly in search of their spines, and the President, center left or center right?, all getting together to tell us it's going to take hard work to rebuild America, but we can get there if we sacrifice. Cut grandma's medicaid, push the retirement age to 67... you know the drill.

Well we already paid. I've never worked lest than a 50 hour a week in my life. Everyone I know works a 50 hour week. Everyone is afraid the axe is going to fall. Well guess what? Grandma needs medicine? We already paid! Johnny can't work anymore and needs help? We already paid! Need to retire because you're getting old? We already paid! Don't come to the State of the Union speech crying that you lost the money at the track and could we just suck it up and do a little more for a little less. I got news for you, we already paid!



Put the Pitchforks away. When your drunk uncle W tells you he bet your retirement money on democracy in the middle east that money is still gone. When that same uncle is down on Wall street a few years later giving the mortgage money to some hookers, that money is gone. When you get so fed up with your uncle that you get cousin O to buy the groceries and he still gives the money to the hookers on Wall Street, that money is gone. I just don't want to hear either of them tell me that I'm the one that has to buck up. Hell no, we already paid!

Somebody's going to have to think a little harder, work a little harder, give up the hookers and the unprovoked wars, and come up with plan C. I'm expecting better in 2012; and screw you Mayans, we're in this for the long hall.

When you get really worked up you need a little comfort food. Nothing says comfort food like Mac+Cheese

No Politics Today

No politics today. Y'all need to pay better attention, that's why the blog, but seriously look too hard and all you'll see is a barrel full of weasels ripping each other for the chance to be the Weasel King. Life is too enjoyable to spend every day that way so instead I bring you... Bacon! Melted Cheese! Gravy! and of course Butter!

Why? Because eating is one of the great pleasures this life has to offer and the 4 aforementioned basics will make almost anything taste better. Seriously, we will save the last member of the big 5, Whipped Cream, for a dessert post, or a sex post, depending on which I think of first, but my big 4 will make anything you cook taste better, with the added bonus of covering up for things you have wreaked. Actually, mix the 4 of them together, dump onto french fries, and you have Poutine, the main reason Canadians need universal health care.

Go to a book store. What do you see? Thousands of cook books full of recipes. Go on line. Browse food. What do you see? Thousands of web sites each sporting thousands of recipes. Well guess what? Good food is all about cooking knowledge, not recipe knowledge. It's about having a cast iron skillet, a sharp knife, and a good idea of what tastes good. Fat tastes good and it makes other things taste good. Mmmm fat!

Tea Party

OK, so here I am, an old lefty (let's check, single payer health care, yes, gun control, yes, pro choice, yes, anti-death penalty, yes, wow, I'm so far left I'm right) and I'm pretty sure that this is a traveling clown show.

Yep, Ringling Brothers has a winner here, except, except...

I was working on a cold adult beverage at Archies Friday night. Local bar, easy walk from the house. Only not this week. As I've noted in my profile I'm a short fat dude, not so fat that I won't walk anywhere, but fat enough that snow banks that force me to climb them to avoid speeding cars are a hardship. Ditto getting half way up them only to have them collapse, sucking my boots to a slushy underworld and leaving me stranded like some overturned beetle between a 62 Nash Rambler and the curb. Everywhere snowbanks, no-where sidewalks.

Anyway I was enjoying a frosty reward after a unpleasantly hazardous trek, soaking up the ambiance that only cheap beer and heaping nacho platters can create, but I couldn't get Archie chattering about the NFL, hockey, or the Celts. Seems that he lost  most of his business to the snowstorm last week and all he wanted to talk about was the town government.

On the day of the storm  the weather was impassible which you have to roll with here in the great white north, strike one. Only on the day after the storm the downtown streets and lots were still not plowed, strike two. On the second day after the storm they plowed, they plowed the cars parked in the downtown streets and lots into their spaces so they couldn't move, strike 3. Finally on the third day after the storm the city closed off downtown to bring in front end loaders and dump-trucks to pick up the snow. Nothing makes for better business than a police cruiser blocking both ends of the street all day, strike 4. Wait a minute, strike 4? Four days, no business, yeah strike 4.

Archie doesn't know politics, but he does know that he lost 4 days of business last week because the government didn't come through for him when he needed them to. On last Thursday the guy in the triconer hat screaming about the government maybe looked like a clown; what does he look like on Monday?

Me,Me,Me!

Remember this one? Most of you probably don't. Pity, it was good stuff, good stuff that is over 40 years    old. Sixties were just over, the liberals were in charge, this little bit of film pretty much captured the spirit of the day. Oh yeah, nobody was going to screw with us. Repressive rules and old school Tools were all done, they just didn't know it yet.

Remember this one? It's 23 years later. The Reagan revolution has come and gone. Billy C did a dixie on  gays in the military and Hillary's health care bill was dead on arrival. The "Contract With America" was fomenting in Newt's Id. You still couldn't get breakfast though. Not even with a machine gun.

Wow, I have another 17 years under my belt (and it's a much, much, bigger belt). Still can't get  decent home-fries though. Don't even get me going on the hash browns. More importantly don't get me going on breakfast. Actually do let's get going on breakfast, let's talk, let's argue, let's hash (pardon the pun) it out, lets try to make breakfast the greasy, bacon drenched, syrup covered, neighbor meeting, news talking, community building, public spectacle it was always meant to be. We can work on truth, justice, and the future while we eat.

So, Skip the fast food and forget who's in charge. Red/Blue hasn't done anything for home-fries in 40 years and all they did for social security was wreck it.

This Blog is about thinking, it's about solutions, and hopefully tasty dining tips. I've voted democrat all my life. I've eaten breakfast all my life. That doesn't mean the democrats know what they are doing, it only means they come closer to the way I think about things than the Republicans do. Big deal, my corporate lackeys are better than your corporate lackeys. It doesn't mean resturants make good home-fries. Big deal, my struggling Mom and Pop diner is better than your Micky D's.  What is a big deal is what  kind of movie are we going to be watching in 20 years? and how angry are we going to be.

Home Fries

Get some Potatoes/ 1 or 2 per person.
Cook them, bake/ boil I don't care, ditto skins on/off.
Refrigerate them, let the starch harden back up.
Use a 12 inch cast iron skillet.(anything else shows you are not serious)
Cook your Bacon in it. (Mmmm bacon!)
Leave some of the grease.
Make sure it's hot.
Add butter until foamy. (Mmmm butter!)
Cut up the potatoes and toss them in.
Add salt and pepper.
Fry the hell out of them until they are crispy on at least 2 sides.
Eat em, catsup is optional.
(add whatever you like before or after, onion, cheese, gravy, this is America after all)