Psst. Penultimate sentence: "hadn't seen our friend Geoff in while."

[BTW, you call this a Kit?!? This ain't no Kit -- it's a column.]

[I suddenly find myself craving Osso Bucco. Mmmm . . . orange peel.]

Thank you! Operators standing by to learn of more typos.

Yeah, I thought it could be a column, but it did not make it past my editor. On account of how I have already written about manfood. But maybe she's just a vegetarian. That could be it.

Repost:

Tom fan:

Rule #1: Curmudgeon is always right.

Rule #2: If he's wrong, refer to rule #1.

Rule #3: Everybody else is always wrong.

Exception to rule #3: Agreeing with Mudge dispenses you of being wrong. However, for said exception to apply, you are required to put on a cheerleader costume, and jump up and down while saying: "Oh Mudge, you are so funny, I almost wetted myself!"

Bob S, love the Weingarten piece about the French. I often quote it when "accused" of being arrogant. It's a label that many Americans who typically have not traveled beyond the borders of their own state are always fond of giving us. Of course, being accused of being arrogant by an American is like being accused of being silly by the 3 Stooges.

But the guy actually went to France and investigated the claim. Here is the part I quote most often:

"And so it goes throughout the day. The French people are open, not suspicious. They are self-deprecating, not arrogant. They are almost gallant in their treatment of a stranger. They are defying stereotype.
They are being contrarian. How damnably French of them."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21319-2003Sep3?language=printer

There was one thing in his piece that I took some issue with: he quoted Polly Platt, who said in "French or Foe," her sort of unofficial guidebook for diplomat's wives, that the French have no word for "friendly." Which is idiotic (we have 22!).

http://superfrenchie.com/?p=609

Good morning, friends. Joel, I'm still laughing. Is this food or a crime scene? And the part about when your neighbor cooks, the whole cow or buffalo. Great kit, Joel. I need to start the day off with a good laugh, and you certainly have provided that.

Pat, not walking today. Too, too, cold, and the hip is slightly hurting. Will try again tomorrow, God willing. I'm trying to warm up my apartment.

Have evening plans with some folks trying to sway my vote. Of course they're feeding those of us that show up, sort of like a barbecue. If it's real cold, I will not be there long.

I read Mr. Robinson's op-ed piece on Mr. Bush and the Iraqi war. Mr. Robinson makes some good point. I just wonder is anybody listening. Scriptures states that one needs good counsel in daily life, does anyone in Washington heed this advice? This morning in the news here a story about the death of young man in Iraq, blown up in one of those humvees, and he only been out of high school two years. Certainly not time enough to enjoy his life. This is what makes Iraq so very horrible, and the fact that it does not look like it is getting better. If getting better, why aren't we seeing that? The Post showed a mother and father greiving over the loss of their son in Iraq a couple of days ago, the online version, and that was sad too. It is just too much sadness in the nation, too much blood, it is just too much folks. And I don't know the answer, don't profess to know, just know it is too much.

Have a good day, friends, just think Friday is somewhere in the picture. Prayer has been said, and blessings asked, and most of all, the desire that all of us come to know that God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

So Angus is the name of a guy? I thought it was the name of some beef. Can Angus cook Angus? And would that be considered cannibalism?

The time is wrong on these comments. I have 8:01am, and my post above is showing six something.

Good morning, superfrenchie.

Good morning, Nani and Error Flynn. *waving*

Cassndra, time and greeting for you:

http://superfrenchie.com/Pics/Blog/Various/grand_central_cassandra.jpg

Thanks for the levity, Joel. It brings the old Bugs Bunny schtick to mind: "Hey Doc, what's cookin'?" "Why, you are..."

The past few days have been frought with worry over my Aunt's condition. The chemotherapy regimen will be changed to decrease the possibility of hallucinations, and the cardiac unit did a great job of bringing her away from the complications of congestive heart failure. Thanks to all for your kind words.

MANfood... Hah!

:-)

Morning all! *wave*

I'm anxiously awaiting a brutal winter myself... Barely got past my snow withdrawl symptoms with last year's meager offerings. :-)

Over in one of the tech labs there is a coven of manly men kinda like Angus. Most are ex military who like to evaluate municipal principalities in terms of their concealed weaponry laws. Frankly, they scare me. But they do make some mean chili.

Several times a year they throw highly competitive chili parties during which each participant seeks to outdo the others in terms of protein content and Scoville rating. I have seen some pots full of little more than beef brisket simmered in a Habanero slurry. (Woe be to the unsuspecting epicure who asks for anything vegetarian.)

These concoctions are typically labeled something like "recycled roadkill," or "slow moving squirrel." (Thankfully, none mention anyone specifically named "Geoff.") It is traditional when consuming these creations to make witty declarations such as "Gonna hurt both ways!"

In theory, events like this require the approval of management. Management always approves. I suspect there is a feeling that such events help safely dissipate testosterone, which might otherwise rise to dangerous levels.

I just hope the competitions never get out of hand. Because some of these guys know a thing or two about explosives.

RDP;

One might venture a hypothesis that testosterone breaks down at higher Scoville ratings, no?

:-)

Bush does the Internets (and the Google):

Asked if he ever googled anybody, he responded:

"Occasionally. One of the things I've used on the Google is to pull up maps. It's very interesting to see that. I forgot the name of the program, but you get the satellite and you can -- like, I kind of like to look at the ranch on Google, reminds me of where I want to be sometimes. Yeah, I do it some."

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/10/23/googler-in-chief/?mod=blogs

Description of El Nino winter scenarios--based on weak or moderate ocean currents--straight from the Cattle Network website:cooler for the Northeast, but down Texas way, hopefully, hopefully, hopefully wetter.
We won't be needin' Anguses (Angii?), but Macintosh raincoats.

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=78202

A key challenge of this winter's forecast over North America and the U.S. will be predicting the intensity of the El Nino, WCS said.

"A weak El Nino is likely to produce cool conditions in the eastern U.S. and warm conditions from the high Plains westward. A moderate El Nino increases the probability of warm conditions across the entire northern U.S. and cooler and moist conditions across the southern U.S.," WCS said in the release.

When autumn arrives, do people ever say, "It's time to woman up"?

SF great picture, and please tell me that quote is made up.

I remember it well. I was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt as I delivered the Washington Post one October morning. Maybe the 10th. It was drizzling and getting cold. I looked up at the streetlight and saw what looked like snow. Couldn't be, not in Fairfax City in October. No way!

As the morning wore on, the drizzle turned to snow. My hands froze, I had no gloves. I went in my house and put them under the cold water that ran from the kitchen sink. It burnt my flesh so I ran outside and brushed them in the snow. A strange thing happened, I could move my fingers freely, and the feeling returned.

So, cold and wet, I rode off on my bicycle to do my 2nd paper route. After I finished, there lay a half inch of fresh snow on the ground.

This is the point of my story: Several years ago, I met a guy who grew up in Fairfax, moved to San Diego, and back again. We carpool to the Metro several times a week, and I mentioned to him how it had snowed here in Fairfax City as early as October one year...

He laughed. He called me a total B-esser. He refuses to believe me. I'm never going to live it down. I've only got a few more days left this month for it to snow, or I'll be putting up with another year of ridicule. but I know it happened. I know it! I know it!

And I've searched and searched and Googled and Googled for hours and hours. To this day, I've come up empty-handed. Nothing, nilch, but then, searching for stuff for me is one of my greatest handicaps.

If someone wants to be my hero, and most of y'all seem to be experts at this kind of stuff, I need a link, just 1 timy, itsy, bitsy link. The only clue I can give is that it happened in the early to mid 80's.

Of course, I'll feel stupid if someone posts a link that proves my story within the next 20 minutes, but I don't care, I've got a lot of pride riding on this one.

Did you have to write this, Padouk?:

It is traditional when consuming these creations to make witty declarations such as "Gonna hurt both ways!"

Reminds me of a paragaph from Eric Margolis' 1999 book, "War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Tibet," p. 84, about local torture methods:

Indian intelligence and security forces embarked on a campaign patterned on operations against Sikh militants in Punjab, to identify, infiltrate, and destroy the urban networks of the various Kashmiri resistance groups. Informers, coerced by threats to their families, torture, or bribery, would single out resistance operatives. A favorite torture, developed in Punjab, was ramming a kilo of fiery hot chili powder up a victim's rectum."

Hope this cooking spice isn't part of the CIA's new arsenal for extrordinary rendition?

Has anyone read or hear that Bush--and by dint of association, all Republicans and Republican candidates--are now going to drop the term "stay the course" between now and election day? Iraqis are now being asked to develop their own benchmarks for success, but there will be no reprisals if they fail to succeed in a year's time.

The linguistic jujitsu by the desperate Republicans is no more than a ploy to use (or in this case stop using) deceptive semantics. It's a reverse case of "cut and run." Bush & Ilk have been running at the mouth, and now they're cutting it out.

Pat, I think is it and hope it helps:

http://www.annandaleweather.com/month1.htm

The record earliest snowstorm for Washington --- Washington's earliest measurable snowfall occurred on October 10, 1979. National Airport reported only 0.3 inches of snow; however, much heavier snow fell to the west of Washington causing significant tree damage in the mountains of Virginia. The tree damage was especially severe because the trees had not yet lost their leaves, allowing huge amounts of snow to accumulate on the branches. The storm began on October 9th when a low- pressure area moved east through New York state and Massachusetts. Washington was in the warm sector of the storm and temperatures topped out in the low '70's before the trailing cold front swept through during the late afternoon. During the nighttime hours, unseasonably cold air surged down the East Coast. As cold air invaded the D.C. area, a second storm center took shape over the Carolinas. A chilly rain broke out that evening and continued all night. By midnight, the temperature had fallen to 50 degrees F. The relentless drop of the mercury continued during the pre-dawn hours and many people in the northern and western suburbs awoke to see snow falling. During the early morning a burst of 1 - 3 inches of snow fell in central and northern Montgomery County and a coating of snow accumulated in Fairfax and lower Montgomery County. The precipitation tapers off in all sections between 7 and 9 A.M. but by 10:00 A.M. a new band of heavy snow broke out this time centering its fury on the southern half of the metropolitan area. Huge snowflakes were accompanied by lightning and thunder. By noon, the worst was over and the snow tapered off. During the second burst 3 inches of snow fell in the central and southern parts of the region. A snowfall maximum of 3.0 inches was centered in Fairfax County. Aside from the October 10, 1979 storm, there have been only two measurable October snows on record. Those took place October 19, 1940 and October 30, 1925. (p. 86-87 Washington Weather Book 2002 by Ambrose, Henry, Weiss)

Dumplings are a natural accompaniment to stew, and in our house stew brings out the he said/she said of the stew world, dumplings light and fluffy, or dumplings dense and rich? We have been going over this for 26, no, 27 years, and while I am always right with light and fluffy dumplings, I do cook his heavy sinkers once in a while. FYI the heavy dumplings are called knaedles, and are more commonly a noodle for soups except his mom made them larger for stew.

So what kind of dumplings does he serve with Geoff?

dmd, would the Wall Street Journal make things up?

OK, I know, that's what they do every day on their editorial pages. But still, the quote comes from an interview on CNBC with money honey econobabe Maria Bartiromo.

Pat, I remember clearly a big snow day (about a foot or more) on November 11, probably 87 or something. I'm sure there have been some snow days in October, although I don't remember any of them as school-closing days.

Today is daughter Sophie's 5th birthday:

http://chazellefamily.com/images/Sophie/sophie_oct_06.JPG

Cannot help with snow in October, Pat, but how about _PaperBoy_, the BOOK, by engineering professor-writer Henry Petrovski? This might be a joy for you to listen to. Some of the family might appreciate this, also, since paperboys (girls, too) are practically dinosaurs.

The paragraphs on perfect folding, balancing the bags on bike bars, and of course throwing while riding....I think you would love this.

I believe that it is available through the Library of Congress talking books program. If not, we could both request it.

All I'm going to say, Superfrenchie, is that you are too, too, much. *smile*

Getting dressed, have to go to the school to keep a promise. I hope the young man is as happy about it as I am. God is good.

I wish someone on this blog would tell me how they really feel about the war in Iraq. It bothers me so, and some of the people around here are bothered by it also. Some just don't know what is going on, but those that have family and relations that have lost someone are really hurt. I believe this war is the most serious issue we can consider in this country. I could be wrong, I usually am, yet I feel really bad about this. Perhaps we should ask the families of those that have lost their children what is the best answer.

Cassandra, I looked at the "Faces of the Fallen" this morning in the Wapo. It's so depressing. 20, 22-year old kids. Awful.

And what you see on American TV is so outrageously self-censored that you actually see very little of what is really going on. If you get access of it on cable or sattelite, put on some European channel to really see what is going on. It is really getting very ugly!

I've just returned from a honeymoon in Quebec City. One of the (many fine) restaurants we ate at was Aux Ancient Canadiens in the old part of town. I had the Tres Mignons which was a plate of filets from a stag, buffalo, and carabou. So my wife's beef filet was, strictly speaking, a little better, but the three were still mighty good, and something I had to try....

Well Cassandra, I do not agree with Iraq never have, the losses are very sad. I think a great many people care, but the answers are difficult.

I just noticed that our Armed Forces, are going for the realistic approach in recruiting, at the least they will be able to say they didn't sugar coat anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_6vK_JSSTo

Padouk, going back to previous kit, from Grand Ideas, "Modern candidates who will pander to any audience and grovel for any campaign contribution might recall that Washington stayed on his farm and rued his cruel fate. Admittedly, this strategy wouldn't work for everyone."

I was just contemplating what your founding fathers would think this morning after listening to some of what is happening in Tennessee.

We need politicians with Washingtons view instead of having people who consider politics a career choice.

Les, I believe I ate at the same restaurant many years ago on a school trip, for us the meal was Boeuf Bourguignon, it was great (in a manly meal kind of way - just with more elan).

Cassandra: //Getting dressed, have to go to the school//

Cassandra, when you arrive to the school, check this out:

http://superfrenchie.com/Pics/Blog/Various/cassandra_school.jpg

Cassandra here is one view from up here, using both Iraq and Afganistan together, there are many viewpoints up here and this is just one.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&col=968350116795&c=Article&cid=1161597487711&call_pageid=968256290204

Loomis, gold! After at least 5 long years, I can finally settle this score with this guy and retrieve my dignity. You're good, real good! only 26 minutes, but I'm assuming you spotted me at least 6 of those so I didn't have to feel like an idiot.

college Parkian, Paper Boy, gotta get it. I have a stack of stories to add. Stephen King, in his book "The Regulators", begins with a paperboy traversing the neighborhood. when I read it (listened), I couldn't help to think that he must have been a paperboy himself. Special people they are, spreading the news by their feet.

OK, my promised report on the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting.

There were just under 1000 people in attendance, and around 600 talks and posters presented. These are some of the ones I attended that stuck with me.

Prothro and Liter gave a talk on the taxonomy of mammals called dromomerycids. This was of interest to me because it indicated that we have almost no hope of identifying the species of dromomerycid that my museum discovered in Virginia a few years ago.

Chun Li et al. presented on an amazing fossil of a marine reptile from China, that apparently lived and hunted in intertidal areas.

Robert Carroll gave a talk on marine reptile evolution and how the way you consider anomalous taxa (like sea turtles) can cause big differences in the assessment of relationships.

My friend Brooke Wilborn reported the first mammal tooth found at the Wyoming dinosaur site being excavated by my museum.

There were a couple of talks (by Barrett and Zhou, and Makovicky et al.) on some fantastic fossils of the dinosaur Psittacosaurus from China, including six babies that were buried together in a volcanic eruption.

There were several good talks on taphonomy (how fossils get preserved) including one by Behrensmeyer and Faith on a project to look at the bone decay of modern skeletons in Africa. The project is now in its 29th year, and they can still identify some of the same skeletons. In another talk by the same authors, they showed a picture of a cow leg bone, close to a foot long, that had been swallowed, partly digested, and then hocked up by a hyaena.

In one of my favorite talks, Daniel Fisher continued on a theme from last year, looking at evidence for musth battles in male mastodonts. Last year, he showed that a particular mastodont had been killed in a musth battle when it was stabbed in the jaw by another mastodont. This year, he showed that the victim had survived years of these battles before the one that finally killed him.

Brand et al. had a poster on trying to sort out the stratigraphy in the Ica Valley in Peru, the area where i've been working.

There were three separate talks, with no consensus between them, on the evolution of baleen plates in whales.

Stephen Godfrey and Larry Barnes did a talk on a Maryland relative of the Ganges River dolphin.

My graduate advisor, Judy Schiebout, and her current students reported on a new fossil mammal site in Louisiana, that less than a mile from the high school where I taught for three years.

There was also a "Town Hall" meeting on the teaching of evolution. This is something SVP introduced a few years ago, with the attacks on evolution in various places. It's a good idea, but it's a bit like preaching to the choir.

All in all, a good meeting, with a lot of good talks and posters.

Loomis asks: "When autumn arrives, do people ever say, "It's time to woman up"?"

I have not heard that phrase. But, I suspect that some politicans may occasionally say "It's time to womanize." Is that close enough?

The 9:15 is me. Sorry. It was also me yesterday.

Dooley, how many new fossils are coming out of China these days, and to what extent are they extracted/analyzed by professionals vs. amateurs. Are there concerns about authenticity. Also, how often do you folks find an entirely new species -- say, a new Jurassic dinosaur. Were there any talks on our favorite water-cooler subject, the K/T extinction? Any great leaps forward in the fossil record prior to 65mya? Thanks for the excellent report above.

Dooley wrote:
"Stephen Godfrey and Larry Barnes did a talk on a Maryland relative of the Ganges River dolphin."

Pray, details, Dooley for we Chesapeakans.

Pat -- will check out SK. I love his book on writing. No paperboy mention there, that I recall. But details on his mimeo newletter done with big brother and sold for a nickel.

Dooley - Thank you very much taking the time to write your report.

What will be the end product of your work in Peru? I mean, are you trying to make a geological map of the area, or is your work concerned with answering a more specific question inherent in the stratigraphy?

u'v convinced me JA... time to become a vegetarian :)

CP: Isn't King the one who said that anyone who outlines a piece of fiction would much rather be writing a master's thesis?

China is a prime fossil location these days, with a kinds of new things being discovered. Many of them are collected by farmers, which has led to at least one well-publisized fraud that was published in Nat. Geo. Fortunately, China has a thriving professional paleontology community, which helps cut down on fraud. IIRC, all Chinese fossils belong to the Chinese government, so their sale is illegal, but there is a huge black market.

Early next year, my museum is displaying (on temporary loan) some of the Chinese fossils, including one of the feathered dinosaurs. My boss is doing collaborative work with some Chinese paleontologists.

There were several talks on mass extinctions, including one that disputed the role of humans in Australian Pleistocene extinctions, and another indicating a combined human and climate cause for Madagascar Pleistocene extinctions. Unfortunately, I missed those talks (busy schmoozing with the other whale researchers).

Discovering new species isn't terribly rare, especially in rock formations that haven't been studied extensively. I'm pretty conservative with naming species, but I've named 2 whale species, and I have several others that I'm working on, and I'll be a co-author on a new reptile if the paper is accepted. Of course, naming a species, and having it stand up over time are different matters--a few people have disputed the validity of one of my whale species (although they'll eventually see the error of their ways :-))

joel - the thing is, with the weather the way it is, he kinda needed that coat and gloves (i had to dig out my winter coat and gloves!!! it's COLD in dc today! {not that i'm complaining, i love the cold!})

cassandra - remember, there are a clutch of us that work for the gubment and aren't really, um... i would say that we aren't permitted but it's prolly better to say we aren't *encouraged* to give our opinions about the war, the pres, etc. those in uniform (military) aren't actually allowed to say anything derogatory about the pres while in uniform! (is that actually true jw?)

RD - i've had some of that chili and all i can say is... "ouch!"

Pat writes:
Loomis, gold! After at least 5 long years, I can finally settle this score with this guy and retrieve my dignity. You're good, real good! only 26 minutes, but I'm assuming you spotted me at least 6 of those so I didn't have to feel like an idiot.

Pat, as I've said, you're *my hero*. It actually took me 11 minutes, because after my 8:25 post I read your 8:10 post. The credit is truly not mine, but goes to one of the best teachers I ever had--at San Francisco's Golden Gate University. He taught in the Telecommunications Management program. I can't remeber his name for the life of me, but recall his face as clear as day because he had one of those fringe beards that follows the jawline, but no moustache. He also used to create spittle at the corners of his mouth after speaking for a period of time--but I was very fond of him for his exceptional knowledge. He was the head of Lawrence Livermore Labs' data retrieval services.

I still have the college catalog course description for TM313 and, boy oh boy, does it make me feel old--like a real Silicon Valley dinosaur!:

Seminar in Viewdata and on-Line Commercial Information Systems

An advanced course in the develoment and use of sophisticated consumer and commercial information retrieval and management systems including Viewdata and videotex-like home-retrieval systems, APPLE II microcomputer-based systems, the SOURCE, MICRONET, NY Times Information Bank, UPI, DIALOG and other online commercial business information retrieval and news systems. "Hands-on" course with field trip. (I remember the night well--my first experience with NEXUS. I was hooked.) Interfacing these information systems to the "office of the future" and electronic mail networks and library facilities is analyzed. Problems in "human engineering" the system to theuser are investigated.

As I said, Pat, glad I could help.

StorytellerTim said: "But, I suspect that some politicans may occasionally say "It's time to womanize." Is that close enough?"

I hear that some of them are into pagination.

*rimshot*

For mo:

Know why there aren't any jokes about Panamanians?

Because they have no sense of humour.

omni - um... cuz we aren't funny?

CP, it was a skull found some years ago in Calvert County. The Ganges dolphin is the only surviving member of a group of dolphins called platanistoids, that were among the most common dolphins in the world 10-20 million years ago.

There is actually a symposium coming up on the marine fossils of Maryland and Virginia. The symposium is free and open to the public (but I recommend paying admission and visiting the museum as well).

http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/cmmfc/schedule.html#Meeting%20Dates

The symposium is being held at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, MD (near Patuxent River Naval Air Station) on Saturday, November 11, and is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Calvert Marine Museum Fossil Club. Stephen Godfrey is the paleontology curator there. There will be a full day of talks on Tertiary geology and paleontology. As I recall from the schedule, there are at least 2 talks on stratigraphy, as well as talks on molluscs, seals, sea cows, crocodiles, land mammals, and several on whales (including one by me).

hey! we do too! *pthhhhhtp*

Maybe the *rimshot* was not exactly an appropriate pseudo-sound-effect to use when mentioning politicians and pagination in the same sentence.

That's just the best I can do.

When JA asked for guest kitters the best I could come up with was to have JA announce there would be new kit up by omni in a few minutes. The whole of my kit would be:

'New Kit.'

groan! martooni... just... *groan!*

Cute kid, SF. Good haircolor for an October baby.

You should never have hide n seek at her birthday parties if you want to ever find her again.

As for the Scoville ratings-- excess stress does drop testosterone, but it has to be prolonged rather than acute, so it's not one bite that does it, it's the ongoing agony of the aftermath that has a shot of cooling the jets of machoism.

I've tasted those "meat chilis" and frankly, I could just as well pour tabasco sauce on some steak and call it chili.

All those prizewinning chilis from chili cook-offs would get an uniform grade of F from me.

Real mexican chili has VEGETABLES in it, and I don't mean watery tomato sauce. And of course, corn and beans too. It puts the warmth back in your bones after a long day in the cold.

Very funny kit, Joel. Only, I'm beginning to think I may be a man! To review:

Hate to shop;
No fashion sense;
Do no crafts of any sort;
Focussed equally on family but ambitious in career;
Much rather work outdoors than in;
Easily bored.

If I hadn't had #1 and #2 (I remember it clearly) and if I didn't have a knack for cooking and home decor, I'd be shaken.

Sorry I'm late to the party. Doing two people's work these days. Thanks for getting documentation, LindaLoo. I remember that October 10 snowfall. We only got about an inch or so here in the DC 'burbs, but I do recall the reports of signficant accumulation as close by as Poolesville. I also remember that Veteran's Day snowstorm. I was flying back from a conference in San Franciso, with the usual change at O'Hare. We were the last plane they let go to BWI, and we got in late, waiting for runway plowing. One of my colleagues and I managed to snag a cab, and it was very erie going down the Parkway, with cars down in the ditch, up in the trees, etc. When we got to the Beltway, headed west, we noted that the traffic on the inner loop seemed to not be moving. I only found out the next day that it was at a standstill from about the I-95 interchange (in MD) all the way across the Wilson Bridge! I slept at my folks' place that night, knowing that getting out to my house in the country (at that time) was not possible.

Looked at your list Yoki, mine would be almost the same except I do some crafts but limited cooking (the husband enjoys cooking and is territorial about it so helping is not advised).

Thanks Wilbord. She and her older sister (a September baby) have that hair color. Neither Mrs. SuperFrenchie nor I do. My guess is that I shouldn't invite my superhero friends for poker night as often. I did notice that SuperCarrotTop was lingering a little too long last time he came!

Did you notice that me and Cassandra are now talking in signs?

My favorite snowstorm story is from January of 1987. This was a one-two punch that blanketed the area. It was significant because I was flying from Seattle to Washington National (Remember that place?) to interview with a consulting firm. I got as far as Chicago before the company contacted me and told me to go back home. So that day I flew to Chicago and back just for fun. But eventually I made it out. And I got the job.

Happy birthday, Sophie. Joyeux anniversaires!

Hey, men do crafts!

Many just prefer big saws and such instead of itty bitty tools requiring excessively fine motor skills.

Real men knit... with bolts and string.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0521/p18s04-hfes.html

Yeah, I do know guys who lack any handy skills while seeming to STILL have apparently functional arms and hands.

ok, lots to talk about. first off rd, your boys have it exactly right. it is a crime to put beans or vegetables in chili. as for other man food, my friend greg makes a chicken soup that will cure the worst sinus trouble in the world. it is also likely to make you cry.

dooley: what do you know about the chinese river dolphin in relation to the three gorges dam? what kind of efforts are being made to prevent its extinction?

mo: what kind of restrictions are there on canal use? big boats only? i read somewhere a while back that it would be kind of silly to expand the canal because the majority of boats are built to canal limits. i guess the hope is that they will start building them larger (which they inevitably will)

pat: i was once in san francisco for snow in august. nobody believes this. i swear it's true.

and finally, a question for the canuckistani boodlers: i have a friend from canada who is always complaining aboot how cold it is, and when i point out that he is a) from canada and b) a wuss, he gives me some bull about how canadians are not actually more resistant to cold, they have simply developed better equipment to deal with it. i told him i would ask my imaginary canadian friends, so is this true? or is he just a wuss?

Ah Grasshopper

Your friend Angus is responding to the primordial racial memories of his people.
At this time of year the hardy folk of northern climes are antsy to boil anything remotely edible and stuff it into boiled bottles (death to lima beans).
This is not the time of man however; it is the time of Grandmothers. It is their duty to gather the clan, the peat and the foodstuff (see, stuffed food). Only Grandmothers have the authority to order the men out of the house, set the women to chopping and, wielding the wooden spoon of justice, keep little hands from putting more food into their mouths than into the pot.
As the dim, dank days of winter fall upon us we look to Grandmothers to save our bodies and soothe our souls.

Yoki: //Only, I'm beginning to think I may be a man! To review: [...]//

The test is very simple. Here it is:

- How many times an hour do you think of sex?

0 to 1: you're a woman
2 to 10: you're a man
11 to 20: you're a gay man
21 to 30: you're a Frenchman
>30: you're a Congressman

Red hair is recessive so no need to suspect the redheaded poker partner, SF.

People who carry one copy of the redhead gene tend to freckle and have slightly lighter skin for their hair and eye color than others. I have a redheaded brother and everybody else except for one brother has freckled in their life.

My non-freckling brother used to be a sun hog. He has passed for hispanic and now actually gets mistaken at times for a lightskinned black when he has his tan on.

While, as you've seen, I've been known to glow in the dark.

So if you ever have freckled in your life, you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Depending on where your friend is from he is either a wuss, meaning he probably lives in my area, or he lives where it actually gets really cold.

I think we do develop a tolerance to the colder weather but there is a seasonal adjustment period. However, friends from warmer climates tell me they have never adjusted to the cold and honestly I would have a similar problem living where it was very warm on a more consistent basis than here in the summer.

One Canuck opinion, from one of the more moderate Canadian climates.

Really? I know somebody who grew up in the tropics who all but rolled in his first snow and said he was never going back to snowless climes if he could help it.
Maybe your friends are just comparing themselves to those who seem to have antifreeze for blood.

>

no restrictions on the size of the boat... (in fact, a man once swam the canal) private yachts can use the canal - there is a high tariff tho - cargo ships are charged per weight - other ships are charged per length. the largest ship that can fit thru the canal is called a panamax ship - Panamax continues to be a noteworthy factor in ship design, with an increasing number of ships being built precisely to the Panamax limit, in order to transport the maximum amount of cargo in a single vessel.

The increasing prevalence of vessels of the maximum size is a problem for the canal. A Panamax ship is a tight fit that requires precise control of the vessel in the locks, possibly resulting in longer lock time, and requiring that these ships be transited in daylight. Since the largest ships cannot pass safely within the Gaillard Cut, the canal effectively operates an alternating one-way system for these ships.

Many modern ships, known as post-Panamax ships, are far larger than this (and hence cannot use the canal). This is the case for supertankers and the largest modern container ships; much bulk merchandise such as grain products is moved primarily on Panamax (or sub-Panamax) ships. U.S. Navy supercarriers are also in the post-Panamax class; the Nimitz class aircraft carriers are 333 metres (1092 ft) long overall with a beam of 41 metres (134 ft), while the flight deck is 76.8 metres (252 ft) wide.

there are already something like 30% of ships that are post-panamax size and plans to build many more, esp once the canal builds bigger locks...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal

wilbrod, i saw your chili comment, i will state once again that this is a crime: Original Texas-style chili

This contains no vegetables except chilis which have been prepared by being boiled, peeled, and chopped. The meat is simply bite-size -- traditionally, the size of a pecan nut -- or coarsely ground, with 1/2-inch plate holes in a meat grinder as standard. It must always be beef, venison, or other mature meats. Stewing meat also works well. Prime beef and veal, on the other hand, are not suitable for chili, as they tend not to remain solid. Many cooks omit the suet as being much too greasy, although it does add flavor, and New Mexico or Anaheim peppers are recommended. For an "elevated" flavor, one uses four pepper pods per pound of meat; for a milder "beginners'" version, use only 2-3 pods. Chili powder is a barely adequate substitute in the original recipe; it lacks the subtle sting of the pods. (A heaping teaspoon of chili powder is the approximate equivalent of one average-size chili pod.)

cassandra, i'm pretty sure almost everyone here agrees with your feelings about iraq. in short, we are rapidly approaching the fubar stage (pardon my french), if we aren't already there.

Pat,
There was a pretty big snowstorm in DC on Nov 11, 1987. Here's the link: http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KDCA/1987/11/11/DailyHistory.html

Happy Birthday, Sophie, and many, many, more.

Superfrenchie, she is beautiful. And thanks for the sign.

Texan cook-off chili maximizes salt, meat, and heat. The cookoff chilis are not designed to be an actual meal unless you want to achieve takeoff.

It has very little relation to chili con carne. I was born in the Southwest and I KNOW what the mexican recipe is. It's a spicy STEW with beans and meat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_carne

That said, if you like pure "texan chili", you may very well like Ethiopian cooking, they have a kind of goulash that's pretty spicy that you might enjoy.

The Indian version of chili (no carne) is called Ragma (kidney beans) and it's cooked with tumeric, salt, and chili (sometimes ginger-garlic added) on a typical fried tomato-onion curry base.

The complete frying of the tomato and onions is essential to the taste-- partial frying leads to a BBQ-like taste which would be better enhanced with sweet spices, not chili.

That said, I ain't no texan.

Superfrenchie, you'll probably enjoy this quote:

"The French have decided to ignore our self-proclaimed superiority, and this is translated as arrogance. To my knowledge, they've never said that they're better than us; they've just never said that we're the best. Big deal. There are plenty of places on earth where visiting Americans are greeted with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately, these places tend to lack anything you'd really want to buy."

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" - David Sedaris

Here's the paragraph which precedes the above in the Sedaris quote:

-- Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos were born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!' --

Surely someone has already posted this article about "Paris Syndrome":

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22809247.htm

I will add that the Ethiopian recipe is similar enough to Texas style chili that I'd say there needs to be research whether Texas chili is actually derived from an African recipe. While chilis are not natively African, African cooking has long used native spices that produce similar heat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_pepper

No matter how you eat your chili and not-chilis, don't forget the veggies on the side.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061023/ap_on_he_me/diet_vegetables_aging

And go easy on bread...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061020/hl_nm/bread_kidney_cancer_dc

Oh, I think he's a wuss. You really do get used to it; I've lived in Edmonton (really really really cold), Montreal & Ottawa (really really cold), interior northern BC (really cold) and Calgary (somewhat cold, occasionally extremely so). And I love the winter everywhere. The trick to getting used to it is to spend as much time outdoors as possible. When I have leisure to walk the dogs twice a day, ski on weekends, play in the snow with little kids (not so often any more), and the like, I don't feel the cold. When work intrudes on my schedule and I'm stuck indoors all the time, I suffer. Of course, having the right kit is essential; I have looked very peculiar on some of those long dog walks!

JA, I thought they were talking about that Hilton person, so I avoided the article.

:-)

Bob S: :-)

Achenbach: :-)

In general, I take little cooking advice from persons who insist that there is only one recipe for a dish, their recipe, and that it must be made with precision and without alteration. This is the cooking of a robot, not an artist, and is not to be troubled with. Food should have variety, variability, style, personal flair. A single dish should be adaptable to a modicum of change in the availability of ingredients; perhaps, today, the eggplant is good, the sweet potatoes not so much. Perhaps tomorrow, the situation will be different, or you'll want to emphasize different flavors.

Not that all foods are equal, of course. But all meat-and-chili pepper-only chilis are, to me, equal: equally boring, equally flavorless, equally bad. Anyway, what is the point of comparing chili, when there are so few ingredients? It may be a good science fair experiment in food science, a direct comparison between the properties of the ingredients, but it's not food.

Joel, your daughter's name is Paris, right?

But isn't Paris a boy's name?

I made some chili once and added beans. Served it to my friend John Henry, a Texan, and he got quite suspicious. "What's this!? Beans in the chili?!" I assured him that, no, it wasn't chili; I had simply added some chili to the beans for flavor. "It's beans, not chili," I said. He allowed as they were the best beans he had ever had. "You sure this ain't chili?" No, John. Beans.

i am not so opposed to vegetables in chili, as long as they are limited. beans, however, are an absolute no-no.

From Wiki:
Many chili experts believe, however, that beans and chili should always be cooked separately and served on the side. It is then up to the consumer to stir his preferred quantity of beans into his own bowl. Some cooks prefer black beans, black-eyed peas, or kidney beans instead of pinto beans.

A popular saying among chili purists is "If you know beans about chili, you know chili ain't got no beans".

re: paris syndrome
See, superfrenchie, all that french bashing isn't mean spirited, it is used simply to innoculate americans against paris syndrome!

If you've got kids named Paris, you may want to check what's their teddy bear...

http://www.pr-inside.com/carter-hilton-stuffs-teddy-with-cannabis-r23115.htm

I think we should leave Joel's kids out of any discussions. They will have enough issues as it is.

good answer, jumper.

sorry tim, veggies are not really my friends. i will eat some of them cooked, but no raw vegetables, and no legumes (except peanuts).

Off for weeks due to uppity security settings: they change themselves late at night, to offer me more "protection" for my computer.

I too have been seized by an obsession about man food since the cold wave rolled in. I bought a whole ham just for a pot of green pea soup. Celery, onion, lots of carrots. I guess half of that ham, for the cold weather. Then the peas.

Simultaneously, I am planning the chili. I had to veer away from the meat counter; I was planning the pea soup and the chili at the same time. I must force myself to wait a week or so. I find myself dreaming of crockpotting a big chuck roast and adding a tube or two of pork sausage before adding the other things.
The other day, before the cold snap, I cleaned a whole bag of dried anchos and removed the seeds (but not the capsaicin-filled membranes!) then cut 'em into pieces with scissors, then chopped them in the food processor, then powderized it in the coffee grinder. A few dried red jalapenos and serranos and a couple scotch bonnets were in there too. The fumes from the grinding made everyone sneeze. Into a glass jar and stored in the freezer door. I have enough for 5 gallons of chili at least. I grind my own cumin, too.

Even then I see I was subconsciously plotting the man-food extravaganza.

I thought I was reading an Onion article...

I ate at a game meat place in Denver this summer called The Buckhorn Exchange. It's decorated with enough trophies to make Teddy Rossevelt blush. I had a sampler plate that included elk, bison and something else. They all tasted like steak.

One semi-chain Tex-Mex place I used to go to had on the menu:
Chili..................$4.95
ruined with beans......no extra charge

I agree with that sentiment.

The first time I heard of chili without beans it was the wife of a friend who said she won't eat chili with any kind of beans. I asked why and she said they give her gas. And I said but I thought women folk don't fart...She didn't like me to much after that.

I have always made "girl-food." I can tell you that there are definite strategic and tactical advantages to being a man who cooks food that women like. It is pleasant to hear your wife brag on you to her women-friends, who are skeptical until she describes the menus. I am certain that Mudge will back me up on this.

Well if you're going to ONLY put chili in a spice, I can see why. Meat and beans, well, as Lewis Gizzard wrote as a book title: "Chili dogs bark all night."

Indians, being vegetarian, specialize in um, "debarking" beans by adding what are called carminative spices. The following list includes both Indian and European herbs and spices that serve as carminatives:
ginger, turmeric, fennel, sage, savory (the primary bean-spice used in Europe);
cinnamon, cloves, bergamot
(Which makes you wonder why Captain Picard was so fond of Earl Grey Tea); peppermint, dill,anise, caraway, licorice, marshmallow root, thyme, rosemary, oregano, valerian, motherwort, juniper.

Cayenne is an carminative, too but it doesn't always work so well for beans without some aid such as turmeric. It is also important to cook the beans very well.

The way a friend cooks bean-based dishes, I've never had "aftereffects" even once.

So in the hands of the wrong cook, chili shouldn't have any beans, that's for sure.

Thanks for the article link, Boss. Oh, those poor fragile Japanese! God help them if they visit L.A. and get told bruskly, "We don't take reservations, everyone waits at the bar."
I found Parisians to be pretty nice, except for the guy who tried to pick my pocket in the Metro.

Thanks for the article link, Boss. Oh, those poor fragile Japanese! God help them if they visit L.A. and get told bruskly, "We don't take reservations, everyone waits at the bar."
I found Parisians to be pretty nice, except for the guy who tried to pick my pocket in the Metro.

SCC: too many to mention. My only defense is that I was overcome by the memory of gassy tex chili-eaters.

Superfrenchie
I too was uncomfortable with the idea of someone named Angus boiling beef. It does smack of cannibalism. Perhaps Angus is a new Douglas Adams inspired breed of sentient tucker. Does he want to be eaten? If not (writer slowly draws fingers away from keyboard, shaking head)
While my suspicious nature has been aroused I must ask. Are all the kits rejected columns? Are all the columns superior kits? Were the columns rejected because of their content or because of incorrect punctuation?
Enquiring minds want to know.

Ahem, for the record, I happen to like beans. They're good for you, you know. Carry on.

Sparks, most vegetables in American restaurants are not worth eating. They cook them PLAIN and sometimes remember to put the salt and butter on them.

All vegetables need some oil for proper digestion.

Maybe eating asian food will help expand what you consider "okay" in vegetables. Worth a try anyway.

I have a friend who got his fiancee to eat eggplant and a lot of vegetables that she normally hated because they were cooked beyond recognition.

To start with, he smoked the eggplant until the skin was charred, peeled the skin off, dumped in with fried tomato-onion curry base, and added some spices and peas. Very velvety and smoky.

Faithful readers of Joel Achenbach understand that in his neighborhood some consider cannibalism an acceptable survival strategy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401156.html

Wilbrod, please explain why salt, butter or oil would help the veggies.

I am a plain vegetable person, no salt, butter or oil and prefer them raw or slightly steamed. Is that not good?

Thanks so much Superfrenchie. I'm not only a man, but a gay man (which, with my knack for home decor, makes perfect sense!). I'm happy about that; it means that I will soon develop a very fashion-forward personal style and will be able to make most straight women laugh out loud with a mere glance. Excellent!

Happy birthday to Sophie; she's lovely.

Boko999 - Joel has stated in the past that some kits are indeed columns that his editor suggests might be better served in this forum.

Some are obviously motivated by the news of the day.

Some are collections of links in a shameful attempt to emulate Liz Kelly.

And others are clearly desperate cries for help.

Well, no wonder the boss-woman wouldn't let it by--I can see where she wouldn't want to start a tradition like, "It's October! Time for another cannibalism column!"

Thanks, RD--I had forgotten that one.

nope, wilbrod, i'm just a meats and starches kind of guy. i also eat fruit, but usually only cooked or pureed. i have a freezer stocked full of cut up fruit for smoothies. vegetables just don't make the list though. they are what food eats.

Wilbrod, you left out asafetida (also known as asafoetida and devil's dung, hehehehe I just love them both). Yes, it is an extract of a species of fennel, but with it's own peculiar charm.

hah - on my weingarten chat group someone posted a link to the nova/rova achenblog entry - this is her comment...

//I thought it was funny that the comments for the NoVA/RoVA piece were longer much than the column itself.//

ladybird Johnson on chili:
"My feeling about chili is this: Along in November, when the first northern strikes, and the skies are gray, along about five o'clock in the afternoon, I get to thinking how good chili would taste for supper. It always lives up to expectations. In fact, you don't even mind the cold November winds."

Sorry that I've been scarce folks, but I'm still trying to visit the one friend in hospice while helping to plan the memorial for the friend that just passed away. Plus everything else.

Only have a little time. I am another cook that believes that recipes are for wimps. Cooking should be based on what food is good and finding a way to mix them into an attractive, tasty repast. I agree with wilbrod that if you insist that there is only one way to make something and that it must be precise that you are an automaton. You would make Henry Ford proud.

As for male cooking...pshaw. Note that a significant majority of professional chefs that cook a wide variety of cuisines are men. I grew up the son of a Chinese cooking instructor that tended to make her own recipes and taught them for many years. Although it is out-of-print, I still cook from my mother's cookbook and still get loads of raves from friends. I went to The Johns Hopkins University in the mid-80's and since JHU had only admitted women for the first time in the 70's, the ratio was still about 4:1 men to women. If you wanted to date, you had to either be rich or cook. Most of my friends learned to cook. So, of my college friends, most of the women do not cook or only cook limitedly and the men are the cooks. And my friends are good enough that they are frequently asked to cater special events. In fact, several of my college friends and I are getting together Monday and we'll be catering the memorial event for our friend that recently passed away. We do have women helping out as sous chefs though. :-)

has anyone been over to the mommyblog today? the vitriol seems to be lacking, at least for the first several comments. i don't see why nobody thinks she's faking cancer. i mean, that's way easier to fake than blindness.

I find asfoetida a little TOO Indian for me.

Dmd, the rationale behind adding oil to vegetables (assuming you eat them without any other oily dishes) is that they have fat-soluble vitamins that need a little oil for proper digestion. Anybody with digestive problems should definitely go with the oil and cooking.

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/91/101131.htm

Also if you're vegetarian, you often need to add a little oil or fat to the diet anyway (whether through nuts, avocadoes, dairy products, or oils).

Also, an excessively low-fat diet can also paradoxically raise LDL (the bad cholesterol) levels. The research is coming in-- while high levels of saturated fat can be bad for you, low-fat diets aren't so good either.

The best way is simply to try and balance saturated fat (from meat, milk, etc.) with unsaturated fat (vegetable oils-- preferably olive, canola, etc.).

I like raw carrots, salads etc as much as the next person, BTW. Just not as the only way to eat vegetables.

The chinese nearly never eat truly raw vegetables without vinegar or other forms of preparation. Stir-fried lettuce is surprisingly good, BTW ;).

Indians will eat raw vegetables but only certain one in modest amounts-- the risk of food poisoning is just too high for some foods. Fruit also is preferably eaten raw only when it comes with a rind that can be removed; otherwise it's too risky.

And Sparks, Lady Bird Johnson used vegetables in her chili recipe, since LBJ had heart problems and had to cut down on the fat in his diet.

http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/FAQs/Recipes/chili.asp

Something I never got to respond to yesterday.

Cassandra--as one who really dislikes proselytising religious people, I am not at all offended by your posts. To me, I respect people of all faiths that are very religious as long as they equally respect me and mine. I dislike those people who insist that if I do not follow their faith or believe what they believe that I am doomed H*ll or that I am damned.

However, I respect you that you have found solace in your faith and that you share the blessings of your faith with all of the boodle without judgement of them or their faiths.

On a tangential note--does anyone else find the recent V05 shampoo/conditioner commercial offensive? Or am I just too sensitive being Asian? Even if you are only identifying Communist China, they haven't been that monotonous in dress and hair style for years/decades and not that autocratic about variances in same. I can't believe that anyone would really find that commercial to be tasteful. Makes me think that their marketing team has the same juvenile and sophmoric attitudes that the Abercrombie & Fitch marketing team has.

Time again for me to plug my husband's essays at:

http://www.man-food.com

Meat Fest 06' has got to be one of the funniest things I've ever read. I am crying with laughter over here!!! I think its because I identify with him in some way. LOL!!!

After I revisited the Quick Beans post I re-read some of the comments. Made me positively weepy with nostalgia.

China Airlines has all its stewardesses in the same light purple uniform that goes well with the purple seat covers and carpeting. I've often seen dance troupes from China dressed in similar uniforms to do group dances. These dancers are always matched closely in height and build, hairdo, makeup, costuming, to a creepy degree.

I haven't seen the V05 commerical though. It might be making fun of a stereotype by exaggerating the same, but to sell shampoo, oh please.

TBG, not sure what it says about me but my cooking style is close to your husbands, my husbands on the other hand would be closer to Good Housekeeping. Tell him I love the Limeade recipe, he had me at GET A LIFE. :-)

TBG, inform your husband that it is not necessary to warp the pages of the tv guide (which, come to think of it, will no longer work in the new, larger format. simply lay your fork across the top of the cup noodles. this works fine.

While I have not seen the VO5 commercial, I can definitively state that Chinese students do not wear Mao jackets or have uniform haircuts. I know because I had a potluck dinner with five of them last night and they were indistinguishable from the 'American' members of the school International Student Association, many of whom are ethnically Chinese.

If you look on my blog, you can see a picture of a high school student from Beijing standing next to my son. As a hint, my son is the one wearing the Mandarin shirt with embroidered characters on it. The Chinese kid is the one in the denim jacket.

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2006/10/chinese-diplomacy.html

Shall we engage in some fake umbrage?

Dadwannabe... I saw that VO5 ad yesterday and thought the same thing. So weird.

Almost like they had put it on the back burner--20 years ago.

Doesn't it make you wonder where the dissenting voices were when they were 1) coming up with the idea; 2) casting the commercial; 3) filming the commercia; 4) finalizing the commerical and 4) selling the commercial?

Wilbrod,

The V05 commercial shows a very Mao generation totalitarian environment where the teens/young adults all have the same hair (close cut bobs) and uniforms. They are marched into a classroom where they are seated and ordered in a very regimental style. One young woman and one young man both reach into their desks and instead of notebooks like the other students pull out, they pull out V05 styling gel (or something like it) and do their hair in a very spiky, New York club hair style. Then they run out of the classroom and go walking hand in hand down the hallway until the teacher chases them out screaming at them. They run away just to show their "uniqueness".

I was rather aghast that they would consider this sort of revolting stereotypical depiction suitable for national television.

I will equally assertively state that Asian based airlines have very strict height, weight and grooming requirements. In Narita Airport I saw a group of JAL flight attendants walking in single file and they could have been clones for all I could tell. It looked a little like a 5/8 scale Rocketttes audition.

So, the boys and men can dress how they want, but the women have to conform to a standard? Sounds about right.

The commerical sounds like it could have been done much more tastefully, all right.

Back to the kit for a minute-- Angus is of course from the latin "Angus" meaning "lamb", so on several levels the image of cannibalism is indeed disturbing. Well done, Joel.

Although there was in the early 80s a very funny English commercial for, I think, a temp agency. Colourlessly uniformed masses marching through the salt mines (very Dr. Zhivago) when one of the proletariat is singled out by "Kelly Girl" and steps out of line, takes on colour (and a nice suit) and walks away from the drudgery. Was it anti-Soviet? Absolutely. Political? Dunno. But it wasn't racist, and that may have been why it was funny rather than offensive.

Here is the commercial in question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C12sV7VHEEY

Isn't the internet wonderful?

Oh boy. This is clearly pitched to the "rebellious" teen set.

A question: would this be racist if it was broadcast in Japan or other asian-majority country?

TGB- Thanks for the link, I'll make use of it. Placing it in my favourites folder revealed the only good thing about the new Internet Explorer 7 I've found.

RD- Great article. This Angus person is extremely dangerous and he will have to dealt with sooner or later, gastronomically or not. I'm very familiar with the Mad Scot Syndrome because my maternal grandfather was from Edinburgh and my paternal grandmother was from a long line of Chisholms. I've found that a stout shillelagh (inherited from the other lot) will keep them at arms length, if not drive them away.
On the plus side I didn't know there was such a thing as blended whiskey until well into my thirties.

Public Service Announcement:

American Sign Language classes (Free) No Registration - Just Show Up!

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. MEMORIAL LIBRARY
901 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. (202) 727-2145

Please confirm room number by checking the bulletin board in the Outer Lobby.

-- BEGINNING LEVEL

Mondays & Wednesdays October 2 - November 29, 2006:
5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Tuesdays October 3 - December 12, 2006: 12:00 Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Tuesdays October 3 - December 12, 2006: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Thursdays October 5 - December 14, 2006: 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Saturdays October 7 - December 16, 2006: 10:00 a.m.- 12:00 Noon

dwb - i'm sorry but it seems to me that quite a few people have that stereotypical image of china - i mean, you are always seeing "news" clips about synchronized everything where all the children look alike... i think the commercial was really over the top, but then again, aren't commercials sorta supposed to be?

yello - dude, your kid has an awesome shirt! where'd he get it?

BTW, Superfrenchie, any idea on the origins of the french surname "Amiot" (Amyotte, Amiotte)?

going by Boodle time, I feel like I'm cutting out work early. Be careful, don't miss your bus.

From The Washington Post ONLINE:::>

Limbaugh: Fox Is Acting in Ad

Radio show host says actor exaggerates effects of disease in ads endorsing stem cell research.
-Daniela Deane and Matthew Mosk 3:36 p.m ET

This garbage was on the home page of washingtonpost.com. I find it about as stupid a move as one could make on the subject. Does the Post feel that the claim is true? Why put it out there as something that appears to be true.

How many people may read this and figure that Rush is in on some breaking news?

COME ON!!!! If you want to be with the move to web, be more responsible. Rush's suggestion that gets run without a serious rebuke from knowledgleable scientists and doctors in the field is totally off base.

WAKE UP Washington Post. I appreciate that you are trying to run with a web version with articles going straight to the online version, but when did you feel that you had to take on the New York Daily News or some rag that you can get while passing thorugh the grocery checkout line.

What is really news is the fact that Rush has no clue what Parkinson's is all about. Rush, get out and visit some people. Get to know them. See if you still don't agree with Michael J. Fox after a bit of learning and understanding.

AND WashPost, you should probably come out with some journalism work on the topic. There lies a bit of responsibility at your feet now. Look around, you may find it. Possibly go and talk to Fox and assertain if he was "faking." Do some serious reporting, would ya?

mo,

My son's shirt was bought while riding a river boat on the Perfume River just outside of Hue, Vietnam. It's a pretty common practice there to hit up the tourists for souvenirs when they can't easily escape.

Here is a picture of my son modeling an embroidered silk reversible robe that cost something outrageous, like ten bucks.

http://vacationmfm.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_vacationmfm_archive.html

Clothing is pretty cheap in Vietnam. The overhead in getting there and back is pretty steep.

I think the point of the Rush article is to ridicule his frightfully callous opinion and indirectly support the candidates that Fox is backing (including Ben Cardin, which at least gives the story a local angle). This of course plays into the liberal MSM stereotype that people have of the WaPo. Rush baited a trap and someone took it. Rush has no credibility to lose and only publicity to gain. Overall, a tasteless gambit.

Hey, Jkt...

That's how you see it, but most people don't read like that. They see: Fox Is Acting in Ad. They also don't see anything else that suggests that this is probably not so.

The rest of the article was pretty lame... at best a sublte jab at Rush. Not much meat on the bones.

wilbrod - how's this site for learning ASL?

http://www.masterstech-home.com/ASLDict.html

(i can't make any of those classes you mentioned b/c of my work schedule)

DM, nice to hear from you, when I looked that article it is linked to another article on Fox. It explains why he did the commercials and about stem cell research.

A quote from Fox following up on Rush's comment would have been nice.

yello - DARN! that shirt is wicked cool! :(

After this news on Stem Cell research for Parkinsons the other day, Rush's comments seem like a cheap shot. Of course I am Canadian and have a soft spot for Fox.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061023.wxparkinsons23/BNStory/Science/home

dmd, same back to you.

Yes, I always think that a reputable paper/web site should LEAD with the truth, because that is what most people remember.

I take jkt's point that they are subtlely mocking Rush, but that isn't what many people take away from it. For about 40% of America, they see the ad, they see the headline (assuming that any of the 40% read the WashPost online) and they think that it is true.

I hope everyone here is fine!
DM

I see we are on the homepage. Now we are going to get all these protests from committed vegetarians.

And after all the nice things we said about her father.

CNN is about to do a story on Micheal J. Fox 5:38

It brings to mind that old saying 'all around a pigs ass is pork'.

From Yesterday about Apples and Melville:

Wilbrod> It is our mistake to um, foist our elite cultivars on them, charge for them, and then leave the farmers to find out the cultivars aren't adapted enough.

Mostlylurking> What disturbs me is when seed companies patent a seed and make it illegal for farmers to save the seed from the plants, thus forcing them to buy seed every year.

... so the consensus is not so much that we're paying too little to acquire genetic material but that we're charging too much to lease it out.

If I were you, I wouldn't be posting any of this if I had an axe to grind.

There are nearly 10**4 (10,000) named varieties known in cultivation world-wide. Only about 10**2 (100) have any pretension to commercial use, and about 90% of the revenue extracted from the apple harvest is generated by just 10**1 (10) varieties. The number of rootstocks in common use is probably less than a dozen. We are at severe risk of an apple famine if some apple disease or other suddenly develops a more virulent strain than normal.

A third of the commercial apple crop is raised in China (Phillips). The paradoxical irony is that it is not US horticulturalists that are exploiting third-word markets. Indeed, US growers are being undercut by importers.

Apple propagation is peculiar because apples are not bred. Most varieties, whether they produce fertile pollen or not, require it to set and ripen fruit. Pollen from a closely related tree won't work. Thus, every fertile seed is a cross between two unrelated strains and will not grow true to either parent. However, our prehistoric ancestors discovered that valuable varieties could be preserved, cultured, and distributed by grafts.

From time to time, superior strains have been discovered as volunteer trees growing from discarded seed. Genetic sports with slightly better color or conformation have been noticed as a single branch growing on a parent tree. Relatively recently, large research institutions have been raising tens of thousands of seedlings to maturity and screening them for commercial interest to arrive at one or two of value every dozen years or so.

After a superior strain has been identified and tested, introducing it takes several years. I guess that patents are filed at the last possible minute. By the time a variety gains general acceptance and peaks in the market, its patent has probably nearly run out.

Take, for example, Honeycrisp™, patented by the University of Minnesota in 1988.

o Luby, Jim, and David S. Bedford. Apple tree: Honeycrisp. Regents of the University of Minnesota, assignee. 7 Nov. 1988. Patent PP07197. 24 Oct. 2006 <patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=PP07197.PN.&OS=PN/PP07197&RS=PN/PP07197>.

Here is the story of its discovery. Reading past the hype, one dimly appreciates what an enormous investment is made in the endeavor to develop better varieties:

o Sponsel, Topper. "Apple Varieties." 14 Oct. 2006. Minnesota Harvest. 24 Oct. 2006 <www.minnesotaharvest.net/apple_honeycrisp.htm>.

Presumably the patent and the trademark on the name create a brand in the mind of the consuming public that can be defended against acts that would dilute its impact such as nurseries palming off inferior varieties as Honeycrisp™, distributors selling poor quality fruit, and growers depressing the retail price by planting too many acres to the variety.

o Phillips, Becky. "Innovation, Specialization Grow with World Apple Market." October 29, 2004. WSU Today Online. Washington State U. 24 Oct. 2006 <www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/completestory.asp?StoryID=1256>.

I should note that mistaking one variety for another is a likelyhood. Many commercial varieties are superficially similar. It takes an expert to distinguish those less common. The only stopgap is good record keeping. For lack of it, many less-than-outstanding heritage varieties have lost their identity and faded away since the dawn of the Industrial Age.

The lineage of Honeycrisp™ shows how critical good records are. The patent states that it is a cross between Macoun and Honeygold. However, DNA analysis shows that this is not the case. Rather, it is a cross between Keepsake and another, as yet, unidentified parent (Sponsel).

Big universities are no less mercenary than big agribusiness when it comes to extracting gain from their patents.

"As prices for apples have dropped, some growers have turned to illegal trees that can be planted for $2-$3 per tree compared to $6-$8 a tree for licensed, commercial trees."

The cost of arbitrating unlicensed plantings can be between $3 and $6.50 per tree, so it may be nearly as cost-effective to apologize after being found out than to plant legitimate stock to begin with.

"Most definitely there should be fewer apple trees planted, which will translate into fewer growers and an overall stronger apple industry.

"'We've got to get strong right now to fight the principle problem, which is China,' Ballew said. 'If it's just price, China will win out every time,' he said."

o Gentry, Karen. "Nurseries Want to Stop Illegal Trees." Fruit Growers News. 2002. 24 Oct. 2006 <www.fruitgrowersnews.com/pages/2002/issue02_11/02_11_illegal_trees.html>.

any particular reason that the boodle is back on central time?

Today's kit was classic Achenbach man humor. So funny. And superfrenchie's 11:21 AM post was humorously true. Anybody who takes offense needs to go outside and count acorns for a while. Or clouds. Or cows....

Edmonton might be cold but Saskatoon is colder, and Prince Albert even colder than that. One Christmas it was so cold on our trip back home that the plug in for the car's block heater broke off when mr. dr touched it.

And if you are not sure what a block heater is or does, you have not lived where its cold.

Back in the 70's I revived a Datsun from a near death experience. It didn't have a block heater but I was able to buy an electric dipstick for it. Still makes me smile. Electric dipstick.

Breaking News:
Lou Dobbs just mentioned cartoonist Ralph Steadman memoir of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.
Dobbs comment? "Kurt Vonnegut likes it, thats all you or I need to know"
I'm flummoxed.

Dang! I've been hungry for Cincinnati Chili (Skyline, in particular) for weeks now. I'll try to make some this weekend and let you know how it goes. (And what would go better after Skyline than Cincy's Graeter's Pumpkin ice-cream?)

DWB, just struck me as a typical commercial (i.e., dumb), but I can see how someone could be offended by the stereotype. The thing that struck me is that it's a love story (sex sells?). The initial smiles, the product (probably hair wax) is hidden in her desk as a surprise with a note. They both get kicked out together, . . . his hair looks better than hers--bringing A. Silverstone's *Clueless'* line of "He does dress better than I do. What would I bring to the relationship?" to mind.

In GW's online discussion today, he had a "pupdate" on his new dog. Wilbrodog, can we have a pupdate?

One of my more pleasant tasks is to make up the Christmas invites to the staff party. In fact its kind of a light day for for 2 of us. This annual ritual took place today.

Our invite is simple. It says "Please join us to celebrate the season at (insert boss name), (insert boss address) Best wishes for a wonderful holiday. rsvp to (insert contact name and phone number)"

This is the sum total of our invite. We worked on this for hours along with cute photo for the front of the invite. We took our time and agonized over wording. Sounds Ok, doesn't it.

We printed this up, and they turned out really nice. Except that right now the highly paid secretarial and managerial staff (me) is sitting here figuring out how to insert the date and time without making it look like we forgot it.

Hi RD Padouk: Not sure about that Stephen King reference but can offer this gem I use when teaching about passive and active verbs:

From p. 122 of SK's _ON Writing: A Memoir of the Craft_:

Verbs come in two types: active and passive. With an active verb, the subject of the sentence is doing somthing. With a passive verb, something is being done to the subject of the sentence. The subject is just letting it happen. You should avoid the passive tense. I'm not the only one who says so; you can find the same advice in _The Elements of Style_.

Messrs. Strunk and White don't speculate as to why so many writers are attracted to passive verbs, but I'm willing to; I think timid writers like them for the same reason timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe. There is no troublesome action to contend with; the subject just has to close its eyes and think of England, to paraphrase Queen Victoria. I think unsure writers also feel the passive voice somehow lends their work authority, perhaps even a quality of majesty. If you find instruction manuals and lawyers' torts majestic, I guess it does.
---
Some students like the "cred" of SK better than Strunk and White. But others soften when I remind them that they already know White, through Charlotte and Wilber.

---
Pat, I like my "paper ladies" who deliver my post early in the morn, by van. Double bagging on rainy days, they customize service for the elderly and infirm, and new-baby family. They will leave the van and deliver to the porch for those customers.

Where are the paper boys and girls, these days?

I was a substitute on a paper route, long ago and far away, for the _Great Falls Evening Tribune_" Girls, with paper route brothers, could sub. We could also fold papers at the route house, for a quarter.

----
In my crock pot as I type, this upstart chili:

White Chili
Chicken breasts cooked to shreds
white cannolini beans (add at end)
broth seasoned with garlic, white onions, cumin, canned diced jalapeno chilies

Serve with rooster sauce on the side, AKA Tabasco brand

Sparks -- The Mommy blog did not take up the authenticity of the cancer claim, but did crab about the guest blogger's:

*misuse of her child as a "work assistant"

*specific and general worthiness of single mommy adopthood

*the ME-ness of wanting to be a mother before 40
----
Then I stopped reading.

---
Dear Dooley! Thank you so much for the bone alerts. I may be able to skip out on soccer for that day. We once went fossil hunting with Peter Kranz, the local dinosaur-guy. I think you are from way-up north. Next time you swing this way, you may want to look Peter Kranz up.

http://www.mgs.md.gov/esic/fs/fs12.html

dr, your comment had me smiling. My older daughter wanted to have a Halloween party this year. So we helped do up the invites, including all the pertinent details, including insructions to the new house (a little difficult to locate) sent them out. Unfortunately we didn't reference a calendar. The day is right but the date is wrong.

I am now preparing for what is evolving into some sort of 11 year old extravaganza. There will be costumes (mom and dad included), a talent show (children arranged) that includes amps, dancing, younger children to keep number 2 happy, a paid musician to play guitar for the kids (dad arranged).

If I survive this weekend life will be good.

I never heard that putting beans in chili is some sort of sacreligious act until today. Hmm. Just made a big pot of it two weekends ago and, yes, I put kidney beans in it. I thought the only rule was that it had to be hot enough to make Satan squirm.

I also put veggies in mine (another faux pas, from what I'm reading), but I was under the impression these were the traditional ones -- tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, more peppers, more onions, more garlic, tons of cayenne and (my secret ingredients) curry powder, a beer and a few shots of Irish. I also throw in a generous amount of black pepper, crushed red pepper, and white pepper.

In other words, if you eat my chili you are guaranteed to have "monkey butt" in about two hours. I think the beans (while apparently not acceptable to purists) provide an extra explosive/ballistic quality that just adds to the fun.

dbG... glad to see there's another fan of Skyline here. I lived in Dayton for a while and that's where I was first introduced to the concept of pasta topped with chili. I was immediately addicted.

Regarding grandmothers and throwing things in a pot...

My great-grandma used to make turtle soup. Picture an 80-something straight-off-the-boat German woman pulling a 30 pound snapping turtle out of the creek behind her house (she'd catch them with giant hooks baited with parts of chickens she slaughtered herself). I'll spare the details of how she did the turtles in. In any case, turtle soup is one of the most amazing dishes I've ever had in my life. Western Pennsylvania snappers taste like every kind of meat you've ever met -- some parts taste like chicken, others like pork, others like beef (you get the picture). It was actually more of a stew than a soup (there were dumplings and the broth was very thick), but whatever you want to call it, it was delicious.

Thanks CP - I think the paraphrase I referenced was from "Danse Macabre," but it has been a long time ago now.

I really liked the quote on passive verbs, although I fear I am now cursed to forever associate them with Queen Victoria getting all freaky with Prince Albert.

Coincidentally, this evening my son is doing a report on King's short story "The Monkey."

Later on I will get to review my son's work. History has shown that this can be an acrimonious process since, like many a 15 year old, he does not take guidance well.

dbG, I have a blog that's updated almost daily. I haven't gotten around to today (no photographs), but let's say we happened to be in Chinatown to enjoy the horses stabled out on F street awaiting the International horse show. Wilbrod didn't appreciate me trying to be a horse whisperer; apparently whining after horses is not "whispering". Like Wilbrod knows about sound, right?

Whoops! my blog is at: http://wilbrodog.blogspot.com/

Hi RD.

Editing children is hard. Somewhere between 15 and 17, you may want to hire a college student for this. I sometimes refer my writing students to families looking for writing support.

I may recommend that short story to my 13 year old. He has been watching Alfred Hitchcock movies lately. In his writing journal he is to both write and collect paragraphs.

His writing curriculum indentifies these types of paragraphs:

illustrating
narrating
defining
comparing/contrasting
refuting
directing
informing

His paragraph lately center around his reaction to AH movies.

College Parkian, I never understood the appeal of passive verbs. Maybe it's in part to load the sentence with nouns, and not to think too much about the relationships in specific detail.

In ASL, the passive voice isn't really there unless you chose to be extremely literal in translating from English (and purists would say then you ain't signing ASL).

English uses the passive voice much more than you'd think for some common constructions.

"There is milk in the refrigator."

How would you write that without the passive voice whatsoever? Just to state the spatial location of the milk?

In ASL we literally use "have" like "hai" in Hindi (have) or "hay" (there is) in Spanish, almost.

In ASL, you sign: REFRIGATOR HAVE MILK.

So you can imagine that overusing the passive voice hasn't been much of a problem for me.

However I can remember one class assignment where my deaf partner, being the better typist, typed up a story, and she kept changing the simple past to the past imperfect in every case. It drove me crazy.

"We rode out." No, she had to write "We were riding out". "The dragon flamed at us", she had to write as "The dragon was flaming at us."
I never figured out why, because in many cases it was actually inappropriate.

Fortunately I got to present it and the interpreter read it and then chose to interpret it how I was doing it, bugger the 'ings'. ARRRGGGGHHHH. What motivation to learn how to type.

MO, you need to SEE the actual sign to learn them, because ASL has a lot of inflection.

This site has religious signs only, but you can see the actual signs at least. I can see I will need to research some good ASL video dictionaries online.
http://www.valleybible.net/deaf/aslmenu.shtml

This will show you the various signs, but not the grammar.
http://schools.roundrockisd.org/rrhs/departments/languag