Everything Old is New Again

Some folks have the impression that I am merely a cranky old timer ( which is true) tilting at windmills, cooking unhealthy food, and playing the occasional ancient music track. Guilty. Well damn-it those windmills have been out there a long time turning the same unrelenting way. If I'm going to be Quixotic I'm going all in. As for the food I promise you it will taste great right up to the moment of your bypass. Music is the one that stings because we've been using it to divide us. Music is one of the 4 great things in life, along with eating, sleeping, and sex. Wait, sex with a partner makes 5. Anyway, who says it has to be new to be good?



Pretty good and brand spanking new. If you haven't already heard it 50 times on the radio your radio is broken. Old timers couldn't possible be that good could they?


Well of coarse the 60's started the modern era. That's the dividing line right. Similarities are purely intentional. What's 40 years?



Or 80? Why we look for reasons to divide ourselves I will never understand. We could be eating good food, debating whether Piaf was better than Adele, and waiting for opening day. (Go Sox, irony alert, Yankees Suck) Instead we go around looking for reasons to get angry with that other guy. You know, the guy we need to blow up.

Today was pop, but you could do the same thing with any kind of music. Good to know cause it will give me another post someday when I run out of ideas. Maybe I'll do rap next.

Wow I'm old!

...and "Archie's was the quiet bar"

So I get home from work at 5:30. I'm all hopped up because it's Saint Paddy's day and downtown will be jumping. I'm definitely jonesing big time for corned beef and cabbage. (Hey, I just post this stuff, that doesn't mean I have the time to actually cook any of it.) That should have been the tip off. Some young folk might enjoy corned beef and cabbage, most young folk might even eat some politely while making plans to get pizza later, but no one under the age of 40 "Joneses" for boiled dinner. I feel like the Shac O'Neil of partying, I can do it old style for short spurts but I can't keep up the rhythm for an extended period. (Hey that sounds like my sex life too, I really am getting old)

I go to Archie's around 6 to meet friends. Nice night, nice walk from the condo. I haven't seen this many 

drunks in Haverhill since last Friday and the weather was way worse then. I'm behind the curve though. Totally sober, hungry and tired. My friends, subscribing to the American axiom that nothing succeeds like excess, were already obliterated. Now in my youth I might, only "might" mind you, have tried to play catch-up, but even as I hit the door my older more boring brain was reminding my older less elastic body that we both had to get up at 5:30 tomorrow and go to work. Yeah, but I could still enjoy a few drinks and dinner right?

Well there was no place to sit and little kids were trying to step dance where I was standing and the waitresses were cranky cause the crowd was so big and woman that were not longer girls were doing the Unicorn moves while a guitar guy played the unicorn song and I know that men paint themselves for sports event but so do women and then they paint themselves for all other holidays as well and why does anyone want to wear green deely boppers on their head and I wish the tv was off cause the news was showing footage from Japan plus footage from the aftermath of Hiroshima because those two things are exactly the same if you are lazy, and have scary file footage you want to show instead of doing actual reporting and it made me queazy thinking about it cause somehow it was way worse with the Unicorn song playing in the background and people were pushing me did I mention there was no place to sit but that didn't mater because they were already out of boiled dinner so I had a corned beef sandwich and a Guinness but it came out of a can but it still tasted good so now I was feeling a little tipsy which would have been a good thing if I was going to stay but it was a bad thing because I have to work tomorrow so I resisted the 2 women with the big shamrocks painted on their cheeks even though the had an extra seat which my friend who by now had a giant tomato head from all the alcohol he had consumed which the shamrock girls though was hilarious even though he was slurring his attempts at seduction then Two and A Half Men came on the tv and everyone cheered so loud for Charlie Sheen that you couldn't hear the guitar guy playing a mighty rebel song... 

Perspective people; perspective.

Red corned beef, or gray? Mantle, or Mays? Beatles, or Stones? Chili, beans or no beans? Coke, or Pepsi? Weed, or Beer? Creationism, or Evolution? Democrats, or Republicans? Celtics, or Lakers? Red Sox, or Yankees? (Yankees suck) Baked, or mashed? Mozart, or Beethoven? Hockey, or boxing? Beer, or Coors Lite? O'Rielly or intelligence? Kerry, or a personality? Up, or down? Pedophilia, or Catholicism? Banks, or home owners? Sauce, or gravy? Rich, or poor? Bieber, or Cyrus? Men, or women? Obama, or an American? Bush, or a post? Cheney, or Satan? (no fair comparing the same thing). Argue much? It seems as a people we just love ourselves a good argument. We like to throw down over it too. If your team decides to crush working people as a matter of policy you better be on board even if you happen to be a working people. Yeah I'm talking to you Joe the plumber.

Fight, fight, fight, cry, cry, cry, work yourself into a lather, get ready to go to war... Then suddenly the Big Kahuna reminds us just what misery is really like. Japan is destroyed. Boom, gone. I heard a radio commentator say he had never seen such destruction before in his life time. I guess he forgot the earthquake in Haiti. I guess he forgot the tsunami that hit the Indian ocean. Really people? When we're not fighting over whether the banks, or Acorn crashed the economy do we really forget the lessons we should have learned just a year ago? What lesson? Just that getting in a huff over the color of the corned beef or the proper use of condiments is maybe a waste of time when 10s of thousands of people can be obliterated because nature got cranky.

The color of the meat is purely arbitrary.

Moonbat.

I guess if you are reading this blog you know or figured out that I am a kind of a left wing moon-bat type person. Truth. On the other hand I don't like granola, never wear birckenstocks, think incorporating is a valuable financial tool, and love a little hedonism once and awhile. I just think companies and governments need rules to keep them in line. I also don't like this:

1. Nestle
2. Nestle again.
3. Chiquita
4. Chiquita(United Fruit)
5. Chiquita again
6. Shell Oil
7. Debeers
8. Massy Energy
9. The American Work Place
10. Union Carbide

 Take a minute, peruse a few of the links, see why I don't sign on to the uncontrolled free market. I bet neither do you. So I guess the real question is how much of a moon-bat are you? This stuff isn't going away tomorrow, but it will never go away unless we try to stop it.

It must be good, It's Authentic!

Time to get our Mardi Gras party rolling. We're going to have some authentic food, play some authentic jazz, drink authentic cocktails, get authentically banged up, no, no, no... We're going to have a great time, eat some tasty food, drink dangerous cocktails and definitely get banged up. It's Fat Tuesday! They had Fat Tuesday in Germany 500 years before New Orleans ever existed. That's the beauty of the place. It is as American as it gets. French settlers, Spanish settlers, slaves from west africa, Native Americans, Acadians banished from the Maritime provinces , Colonists from the first push west, people following the Mississippi south; all kinds of people from all kinds of places showing up in one spot. Maybe they wanted to, maybe they had to, but there they were blending their music, their culture, their lives with the local flora and fauna. Authentic New Orleans just means you picked a point in history and decided that everything that happened before isn't important. Authentic New Orleans means you picked a point in history and decided that everything that happened after isn't important. Authentic... it's the death of New Orleans, it will be the death of America.

Did that sound preachy? It did didn't it? My bad, we're supposed to be getting ready to party! So forget authentic. What kind of a party do you get from authentic anyway...

                                           Arria Belli

"Hey Babe! I'll go try to kill something that tastes good or at least something we can digest. I should be back in 3 days unless it kills me first. You take the kids down by the river and see if those red berries are safe to eat. Give them to little Johnny first, he's looking a little scrawny and we need to figure out if he can survive the winter."

Even the loin cloths put a crimp in things. Trust me, me in a loin cloth, unless the room is very, very, very dark, is going to be a buzz kill. So if we are going to leave the authentic cuisine to run free out in the woods, and we are going to protect the eye sight of all by including a blanket to cover my loin clothed form, how do we get this party started?



There we go. Fat's is a little old school for modern tastes, but that will take care of itself after a few sazeracs. If you don't like Fats play something else. You won't hurt my feelings. I just figured that since this is a web sight about food, politics, our dumb culture, our brilliant culture, history, art, life-style and me bloviating, you might like to try some things that you aren't familiar with. So now that we have the music on track how about some food? We started our roux yesterday so in keeping with the spirit of New Orleans how about some gumbo?

Party!

Fat Tuesday is a week from today. Back in the day that meant you had one week to cram in as much excess as possible before lent. Seriously, what could be more American than wallowing in excess. Hippies in the sixties, teabaggers today, gay pride parades in between, has there ever been a cause or movement that couldn't be helped along with freaky costumes, alcohol, and narcissism. The trick is to combine all those things in such a way that when you wake up the next morning the worst  you might need is an aspirin and a hosing off. Quick! For bonus points is this picture of a) hippies b) teabaggers c) gay pride advocates?

                                           (Infrogmation)

Probably all 3 because this is a picture of Mardi Gras. Strip out the politics, leave in the self indulgence and you have a) My last date b) a democratic fundraiser c) fun.  So lets have some fun.

We have 7 days to cook up a big spread, so I'm going to chug me a VooDoo lager,  throw a Meters record on the turntable, and get to cooking. Now there are a few things we have to deal with. The first is you can't always find authentic creole and cajan ingredients in the local Market Basket. Who cares? You heard me. Authentic is where posers and jackasses go to die. If I hear one more food, music, art, film, theater, whatever snob punish somebody's efforts with a sneer and a "Well, I guess it was alright even though it is not...." Ahhhh! I'm ruining my party mood so I'll just let that on go for now.

It must be true, I won an award!

The Academy Awards were last night, all is now clear. The King's Speech must be a better movie than the Black Swan or Inception. Natalie Portman is now a better actress than Annette Bening. Hey it must be true. Our society is a meritocracy after all, we are all about the merit. Reward the achievers, the rest of us can bask in their reflected glow. How could that ever go wrong?

Wait a minute, didn't I say achievers? We honor achievers, we elect, well you know.

So consider this list of achievements...

Awards and honors

• Anti-Defamation League – Torch of Liberty Award
• Beta Theta Pi (Zeta Phi Chapter) – Wall of Fame
• Brunel University (London) – Honorary Doctor of Social Sciences
• Child Advocates – Super Hero Honoree Award
• Episcopal High School – Campaign Fundraiser Award
• Gas Daily – Man of the Year Award
• Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans – Annual Membership Award
• Houston Area Women’s Center – Honoree
• Houston Children’s Chorus – Honoree
• Houston Community Partners – Father of The Year
• Kenneth Lay Day – Proclaimed by Kathryn J. Whitmire, Mayor of Houston, Texas
• Kiwanis Club of Houston and the Greater Houston Partnership – International Executive of the Year
• March of Dimes – Award of Distinction
• NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet – Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award
• National Conference of Christians and Jews – Brotherhood Award
• Oswego State University – Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree
• Phi Beta Kappa – Outstanding Alumnus Award
• Private Sector Council – Annual Leadership Award
• Stanford Business School Alumni Associations – Houston Business Man of the Year
• Texans For Lawsuit Reform – Award
• Texas Association of Minority Business Enterprises – Texas Corporate Partnering Award
• Texas Business Hall of Fame – Inductee
• Texas Navy Admiral – Commissioned by William P. Clements, Jr., Governor of Texas
• Texas Society To Prevent Blindness – Man of Vision Award
• The Brookwood Community – Honoree Award
• The Rotary Club of Houston – Distinguished Citizen Award
• The Wall Street Transcript – Chief Executive Officer Award
• United States Energy Association – United States Energy Award
• U.S. Navy – Navy Commendation Medal & National Defense Service Medal
• University of Colorado, College of Business and Administration – Ben K. Miller Memorial, International Business Award
• University of Houston – Distinguished Alumnus Award
• University of Houston – Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree
• University of Missouri – Honorary Doctor of Law Degree; The Hebert J. Davenport Society Benefactor Award
• Volunteer Houston – Honoree Award

...what an amazing guy with a pile of awards like that. It certainly is good living in a meritocracy where the cream rises to the top and if you don't become wealthy or famous it is probably your own fault. Thank god there are plenty of  awards so we know what we like? Who was good? What qualifies as art? Consider  an America without American Idol? How would we ever know who is a great singer? Why we might be fooled by...

The Rules Matter.

When you cook stuff the rules matter. Put a piece of chicken in a pot of boiling water for 20 minutes and it will be cooked and it will be edible, but you're not going to want to eat it. That's because of the rules. The rules of physics actually. No matter how much you want say "screw the rules" if you put that piece of chicken in that pot of boiling water you are going to have some nasty, gnarly, dried-out, tough chicken. So just change the rules, right? You can't dumb-ass! Physics is above your pay grade. There are rules that can be changed though.

Wisconsin wants to change the rules for state employee unions. They want to take away the right to collective bargaining. So what, you say. " I think unions need a good spanking. We need to balance our budgets, why do they have stuff I don't have?" The thing is you don't need to strip away a right in order to balance a budget. Your church would probably suggest that hating on someone because they have a good deal is a bad thing. I might even concede that unions need a good spanking, I might if they hadn't been getting spanked ever since Ronny Ray-gun told the air traffic controllers to take a walk. We can go round and round on that, but can we agree that if they take away a "right" we all lose the use of that right. Hey, maybe we might need that "right" down the line.



You'll have to wait until the end of the clip before you get to my point, but it might be worth your time. Old George could really nail things when he wanted to.

Us? We have to deal with the rules of physics. Namely important stuff like how heat caramelizes sugar, starch is water soluble,  and butter, Mmmm butter!, brings on the goodness.

What's the Beef?

You'll see me come back to this one over and over. Roast Beef is good.

The regular news, with an extra shout-out to Fox news, is lame.

I mean let's face it. You come home, you've been working all day, you just want a little comfort. After all you work hard you deserve it. So, when you slide that roast out of the oven, and the whole house smells of beef, and you put a few slices on your plate along with a heep of garlic mashed potatoes and green beans , and you pour on the gravy, just at that moment you know that today was a good day. Then you turn on this.



Scary stuff, Oh No!, the whole world is going to hell in a hand basket! Run away! Run away! Now far be it from me to downplay the dangers of the modern world. Justin Bieber alone is a reason to tremble. Your news people shouldn't be just trying to scare and manipulate you though. Democratic uprisings in the middle-east aren't going to have guaranteed outcomes. Still, democracy is a good idea, right?



Listen for just the first few moments(or the whole thing if you want, this is America). Democracy is a noble thing. It was well worth blowing up a country of strangers and killing 10's of thousands of their people if we can bring that off. Then go back to that first clip. Apparently the Egyptians aren't ready to take the training wheels off the bike, and God only knows about all those other countries. (Shhh! don't tell anyone, but muslims live there.). Hogwash! Enjoy your dinner, turn off the news, and talk to your kids about why democracy is good and why people have the right to self determination. You could have the kids send Billo a letter reminding him when he liked democracy too. You know  what you believe. Consequences and Billo be damned.

What is the Beef!

Boy that's kind of a prissy meal. Well let's tackle the beef and then we'll man up the rest of the plate.

We are so stupid.

1. Us banks created credit default swaps, took our toxic mortgages, diced them up, inserted them into the credit default swaps, and voila! no risk ever again! Wee! it's like we can just print money.
2. Uh oh! Barney Frank + Acorn are crashing the economy (B***S**T but its better than banks being blamed right?).
3. Well the default swaps are still triple A rated investments Mr Public Pension administrator. They can't (cough, cough) fail.
4. Crap they failed anyway. Sorry. Lucky for us banks we are too big to fail.
5. Bush and Obama take turns giving us lots of your money, bonus time!
6. Oops! the states have a hugh deficit. Their pension funds are under water. Somebody sold them toxic investments. Someone will have to take a hit.
7. Time to stop those damn unions from wrecking the economy (not the police or fire fighters, Republicans (and bankers), like the police and firefighters).
8. Look at those greedy teachers and clerks having a job action. Why do they hate America?
9. I love me my gold bathroom fixtures.
10. It really is like we can just print money. I'm glad workers hate teachers and clerks more than they hate us. That way we won't get any flak when we foreclose on their houses.
11. If we are lucky we might actually be the lien holders. We merged so many times that finding the paper work is kind of a bother.
12. Somebody should have gone to jail for this. I hope those Acorn people are finally brought to justice.
13. I really do love me my gold bathroom fixtures.
14. Maybe we can get them to privatize social security. I'd love me a solid gold bathtub.

Valentines Week/Gender Roles/Man Crying

Nothing says love like an artificially generated marketing ploy designed specifically to sell product. That doesn't mean it didn't turn into a good idea. The folks in the boardroom force feed us stuff all the time. You can try rejecting it out of hand. Do that often enough and you end up so far outside the mainstream of society that you end up fat and alone pouring out sorry rants into your computer. Don't be that person.  The trick is to turn things on their head. Sure it is a fake holiday, sure it is going to cost you money, but you can definitely deny the big 3 (card, flower, chocolate industries) their profits.

Valentines day is also a girl holiday. I know, I know,  I'm a misogynist, but that doesn't change the fact that woman love Valentines day for its' spirit while men only like it because they can get laid if they preform the right set of tricks. Mmmmm laid! So, if we are going to subvert our corporate masters we must find a whole knew approach to Valentines day. We have a week so let's get started.

No, no, no, no! Getting woman to be more like men, or men to be more like women is not the answer. We want to enjoy Valentines day, not give it a feminist makeover. Feminism gave women a lot of deserved opportunity, it also gave women double the responsibilities, it also had unfortunate consequences. For example, in post feminist society there is Oprah, Dr Phil, getting in touch with your feelings, getting in touch with your inner child  and this...



The dreaded scourge of man crying. Now this post isn't to pick on Boehner. Man Crying has over-run our society as we all get in touch with our feelings. (Thank you sixties counter-culture as well)





I was going to show you Clinton crying too, but all the video I could find was of fake crying which is probably worse. That means man crying has so engrained it self in our society that there are times when not crying is going to cost you points.

Revolting

I guess this is revolution post part two. Revolutions, only sometimes a good thing, never a safe thing, always a deadly thing. What's up with the camel?



Of coarse you can't have a revolution without Rebels. In other places, other countries, a rebel is just a regular person who has had enough and is willing to risk everything to make things better. Even then a lot of times they don't get " better" they just get "different". Better is always out there, sometimes unrecognizable, sometimes out of reach, but worth fighting for. Different is just another word for change, and change happens all the time whether we like or not. So rebellion is not a narcissistic hissy fit by a bunch of spoiled arrested adolescence, it's unpredictable and dangerous. Unless you grab it and make it a lifestyle.



I wonder if the founding fathers had a cool hand shake and a hip attitude? Those darn 50's, quiet, safe, repressive, how could you not rebel? and if everyone was into it how could corporations not co-op the images for a profit. Of coarse there was real stuff to rage against. Civil rights  and the Vietnam war were an actual call to arms... so why do we just remember this guy?



Pretty cool huh? Rebellion as pick-up method. Nothing says Fight the Power like ruining a dinner party to impress the hot girl! Putz! Of coarse once you start making something into a commodity you might as go all in.

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!

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)