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...

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.

Go with the classics.

So while the world spins out of our control we still have to prep for Valentines day. This year the goal is to thwart traditional corporate interests, have a really kick-ass meal, impress the ladies, and get laid. Mmmm laid! We did shrimp 3 different ways for an appetizer, but just pick one style, we don't want to overwhelm anyone yet. When you bring the love start with shrimp, but end big! So now we need a salad and a pasta coarse to extend the experience as we work towards the finale. Que. up the tunes, lets cook.



Rock is tough for the love song business. The instruments tend to be twangy, and the energy level is more jackhammer than caress. Beatles rule though. There's not a jazz chanteuse that can touch this one with a ten foot pole. You'll want to hear from the ladies too, same time period so it blends nicely. The sixties, romantic in spite of themselves.



I hope that helps the folks that were gouging their eyes out over the Tchaikovsky. Actually I don't care. Try different stuff, you don't have to bungee jump to get out of your comfort zone. Like salads, who ever said they have to be a jumble of vegetables covered in dressing? I didn't, and neither should you. So we're going to make a composed salad because, well, because like I already said when it comes to romance time and care beat fast and sloppy 99 times out of 100. By the way if you are that 1 in a 100 girl that likes fast and sloppy give me a call.

                                          (Alex Ex)

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