Fat, Dumb, and Dead

It's been a tough week for unions. It's been a tough week for teachers. It's been a tough week for working people. I'd like to just tee off on the usual suspects. Limbaugh, Fox News, Republicans, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, but that's a waste of time. Those people are dancing on the coffin of working people, but they never claimed for one second that they would do otherwise. In New Orleans they dance at funerals. It's called the second line, and it's made up of the folks following the hired band (1st line) on the march to and from the cemetery.




No, I never do things the easy way, so lets talk about the guy in the coffin. Since before there was a labor movement in this country the powerful have been trying to destroy the labor movement. Why did you think the work was done?

• Gorged on the American dream you still flew when Reagan crushed the air traffic controllers ( a EAW friend of mine told me he wasn't ruining his vacation over an illegal strike.(Of coarse if the right has it's way they will all be illegal). 
• When the trucking industry turned almost everyone that was an employee into an independent contractor, who could only sell his services to one place, you circled the wagons to make sure the work that was slipping away went to your people. Keep the death grip on a style long after you've been p'wned is a bad idea.
• You made a big deal about buying American, but the Sonys and Motorolas in your play room (another friend) didn't matter as long as you had a Ford truck with the right bumper sticker.
• When we'd go to a job that should have paid prevailing wage (something we didn't know and our company wouldn't tell), you didn't try to get us prevailing wage. You tried to kick us out and called us scab. I never once in 35 years disrespected a union line. I never once in 35 years ever felt like anything but an enemy at a union site.
• At the convention halls in Boston a bunch of you were drunk back in the 80's when I delivered there. Every time for years and years.
• At Javits in NYC I used to have to pay a "toll" to get unloaded.
• When I worked election sites in Boston in the early 2000's the Carpenters Union would show up, but not know the names of the people whose signs they were holding. 

I never meet Investment bankers. Anything they have done, and they have done plenty, is remote. There is no personal connection there. There is a difference between the anger you feel for an abstract on the television and the anger you feel for a person in front of you extorting money or threatening your safety. Personal is always more powerful. You hear me teachers?

Bloody Marys

It's Sunday morning. Maybe you need a little hair of the dog. Maybe a little brunch. Maybe... hey this is America, we should be at our respective houses of worship! (I choose Linda's at the beach. Nothing says almighty power like a lobster benedict, side of hash browns, and a grilled cinnamon roll). Worship doesn't mean you have to cancel the party though.



Hey, it's Mardi Gras. Since when does spirit and jazz not mix?



Okay! You want a traditional approach fine!



Ah come on, more country? Really?



Well if we're all going to be fussy about our worship I'll take...



I do indeed love me some Patsy Cline. America, you can do anything 10 different ways and as long as you aren't hurting anybody you should be left alone. It's true of your choice of worship, your choice of political belief, your choice of music, your choice of art, hell, even the way you make a Bloody Mary.

Let the Good Times Roll!

It's Friday Night. Time to kick rev the party up a few notches. First you should fuel up though, don't want those Hurricanes pileling up in an empty stomach. How about something quick and easy. Did you know there were a lot of italians in New Orleans?

                                           BoscoliFamily

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.

Carnival; It's everybody's party.

Who said Fat Tuesday and Carnival belong to New Orleans? They are kicking it all through South America, the Caribbean, and southern Europe this week. Anywhere catholics hang out. So there's Mighty Sparrow another famous guy that you probably never heard of because you live in the United States. Now I know you're not digging on those tunes, but for today just let yourself go. You're on a cruise ship, it's hot, even if you'd never buy his record, you're knocking back rum punches and having a great time. In America it should be all melting pot all the time, so let's move from your ears to your mouth.

                                           Manuel González Olaechea y 

A little ceviche maybe? Hey, you've been doing sushi for about 15 years now so you know you're ready for this. What! OK you sissies, not too much new odd stuff in one post. Instead of fish we will use shrimp.

Get a pound of small to medium shell on shrimp, a habanero or serrano pepper, a medium purple onion, 3 limes, 1 orange, 1 tablespoon catsup, fresh cilantro if you like cilantro, parsley if you are a complete sissy.

1. Get a pot of salted water to boiling, toss in the shrimp. 2 minutes tops. Drain and hit with cold water.
2. Peel and devein the shrimp. Lose the tails. If you are using medium cut them in half.
3. Cut the pepper in half. You can take away a lot of the heat if you lose the seeds and the white membrane inside. Cut it in very thin strips.
4. Peel the onion. Cut it in half, then slice it very thin.
5. Chop the cilantro, or the parsley (sissy)
6. Mix everything in a bowl then chill for 2 hours so the acid from the citrus has time to permeate the shrimp.
7. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips, crudites, whatever you want.

 If you are feeling brave and you trust your fish monger just get a nice piece of white fish like flounder, cut it into a 1 inch dice, skip the boiling water and combine everything in the bowl. Give it 4 hours instead of 2. I'll be the guy in back dancing around in a Hawaiian shirt and a speedo.

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.