"Madamization"

Real Horror Show! Joan Rivers…latest surgical result…”Madamized”!!

This transformation, which I suspect involves copious quantities of subcutaneously injected hot wax, lacquer and repeated applications of a special-resin based formaldehyde douche, brings to mind the “Trilogy of Terror” story starring Karen Black as Amelia…where an animated Zuni fetish doll comes to life and terrorizes a woman in her apartment. To quote Amelia..”This can’t be happening! This can’t be happening!

Return Of The Weekend Embed
Something fun for the knuckleheads out there - "The Curly Shuffle."

I Wonder
I guess the Obamassiah might be getting a bit testy with Jesse "Baby Daddy" Jackson these days....

Changes - Patriotic And Otherwise
I was casually humming the national anthem the other day (as I am wont to do - as well as whistling the "Switched-On Bach" version of "Wachet Auf" and Los Amadores version of "Tenderly") and considered the line "and the flag was still there." Yup. Sounds good. Ft. McHenry, flag still flying. All good.
But I thought, perhaps in this new era of energy crisis and brouhaha, the production of energy assumes a whole new mantle of patriotic glory. Especially with the gub-mint dumping subsidy money into ethanol production. Corn into alcohol. How patriotic is that? In point of fact, it's been done in the red(necked), white(men) and blue (Ridge) Applachians since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Moonshiners are the new oilmen. Jed Clampett wouldn't have to shoot up that Texas tea, Granny could just commence to makin' nigh onto it in her copper kettle.
Which brings me back around to the anthemic words I quoted above. Maybe there should be an alternate version of that line: "And the still was flagged there." I'm just sayin' is all.

Cool
My previous tagline made it as "Quote of the Day" over at The Smallest Minority. I'm obliged for the notice.

Bread Heads...and body parts.. pass the butter and jam...please...

'Tis only bread.....and boy would I love to bring these to Sunday dinner...or better yet, place them in my front yard for the birds to feed on.

check out this pastry artist.

http://inventorspot.com/articles/body_bread_13546

Delayed Patriotism - Amanda Tapping
OK. It's past the 4th. And, technically, she's not exactly an American since she was born in England and lives in Canada but in the world of televised Sci-fi, she's an Air Force Colonel. In the even more real-life sense, she's a total babe and, wrap her in a flag and I will salute. That sounds so impolite! I only mean that I'll act as if her role is real and she's an officer. Yeah. That's what I mean.

The pics (yes, there are others) are from some lad's mag called "Femme Fatale." And they've been on the web for a couple few years now, actually. I can't believe I've missed them up til now. Live 'n' learn.

The pic certainly plays up her babe-a-liciousness but I hurry to emphasize that she is a wonderful actress as well. Her role on "Stargate SG-1" had her as a brainiac and a warrior. It also allowed her several different incarnations (alternate time-lines, characters that copied her physical form e.g.) that let her express a range from stone-cold killer to ditzy, flustered girly. She handled it all with aplomb. Also, if you can watch outtakes where she rails on Richard Dean Anderson - spit take funny.

Tap, Tap
Hello? Hello? (Is this thing on?) Oh. OK.
Sorry for the lack of posting but I've been in a whole world of pain lately. My joints have been just agonizing. There have been several days where I've spent the majority of the day in bed. But Celebrex is my friend and it's a whole new month (cue music from "Aladdin") so I'll try to crawl out of my cocoon and make some headway against the wind of the world.
To that end, I hereby reproduce something I found in the noisepaper a day or so ago. I thought it was pretty good.

Colin Powell's 13 Rules Against Adversity
1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having you ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose. You might get it.
6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don't take the counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Jowls: The Revenge
"Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad fish. Not like going down to the pond and chasing bluegills and tommycocks. This shark, swallow you whole. No shakin', no tenderizin', down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant. I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's too many captains on this island. Ten thousand dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing. "

-Enigmatic Misanthrope

A Prize In Hand
Is worth ... something. Possibly something in the bush, possibly something on the hoof. But it surely worth posting. Herewith a picture of my prize for providing Rachl Lukis with her blog's new tagline. Sunny looks so cute in her humiliation. You, who have not been declared a "damn genius" by the exalted Rachl, can purchase one fo these from her Zazzle store. Yes. You can. Do it now.

Good Stuff The Second
My love for all things ginger is about as through-going as my love for all things PRS (see the Bonni Pink post below). This pic is of a jar of Laxmi Brand ginger paste. This was also a gift from the friends who gave me the lemon pickles. This is great ginger paste - creamy smooth with plenty of gingery heat. I've used it in making lychee sorbet and I just used it straight up, no straining out of bits. Good stuff. If you like ginger and can find this variety, get it. You'll be pleased.

Good Stuff
Have you ever had lemon pickles? Yes, I know it sounds strange. But you slice 'em thin, put 'em in a salad and you've got something. Something good. And I'm going to use these in my next dumpling project. Lemon pork dumplings with hoisin. I'm not sure how they'll be but if I can get the ratio of lemony brightness to hoisin sweetness right (with blanched bok choy to ease things around), it could be a winner.
Friends gave me these (pictured) for my birthday. They say that these are better than the other brands they've tried. I'm taking their word on that.

Final First Deck Farm™ Pic
Can't say much more than that. The Zavory peppers on the left were in a previous pic. And though the lower leaves of the Supersteak tomato on the right look a little sere, the plant is doing well. In fact, all are doing well. There is real growth on all sides.

Linky Linky
If this doesn't make you laugh somewhere, there's something wrong with you.

The Name Of The Color is Bonni Pink
My love for Paul Reed Smith Guitars has been much bruited about, here on PoW. But I am stealing a pic from the "Birds and Moons" forum dedicated to all things PRS and ancillary considerations ("do 10s work better on a Swampy or should I use 9s?"). One of the big guns on the forum is a collector of the first water. He seems to have the resources and the inclination to vacuum up some of the truly amazing product that comes out of the Kent Island Magic Kingdom. I envy him his ability to get some guitars that are beyond belief. But he recently posted pictures (one of which I've stolen) of a new guitar that leaves me gap-jawed with amazement.

That is a Bonni Pink Hollowbody with quilt maple top, stoptail bridge, cream pickup rings, clear knobs (which manage to pick up the pink), red coral bird inlays and the piezo pickup option (which replicates the sound of an acoustic guitar though played through an amp), cream binding and, since the headstock (unshown) sports the eagle inlay of the "Modern Eagle" option, this should have a Brazilian rosewood (AKA "crackwood") neck.

This is simply one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever inclined a retina toward. I have always liked the color (named after Bonni Lloyd who was Paul's secretary) and this quilt takes it up insanely. The bound "f" holes are gorgeous and if it's in the same weight class as my Hollowbody, as light an electric guitar as you could find.

This guitar, or one as close to it as possible, would be a prime item in my "if I won the lottery" list. Tell me that's not gorgeous. Go on - I dare ya.

Here is a page of Bonni Pinks with a bit explanation of the genesis of the color. You can see that it's prone to fade over time and the fade is not particularly to my taste. But the original color is just killer.

More From The Deck Farm™
Today, a picture to the southmost side of the DF. The bell peppers and some of the hot peppers. One of the Zavory plants suffered in getting planted (the one closest to the camera) but it appears to have come though albeit shorter than the others. I'm so eager to see if the "cool" habanero works as I hope it does. The Biker Billy Jalapeno plants are just off-camera to the right. I will post another pic that will show the hot pepper Earthbox and the Supersteak tomato Erfbox.

Sidebar Changes
One addition and one alteration. I changed the link to Gates of Vienna to one for Gateway Pundit. I found that I was really no longer visiting Gates of Vienna and making Gateway Pundit a regular stop. I think I even did a post not too long ago saying that readers should click on over. Well, that holds true universally. A lot of good stuff is there everyday. It's how blogging should be done.
And I've added "The Smallest Minority" to which I went following a link from Billy Beck. TSM is one of those uncompromising, suffer-no-fools blogs that I'm glad Al Gore's Magic Tubes was invented to bring us. For example, it was there I saw that Bill Whittle has posted again. That alone is worth the price of admission. Whittle's posting has become rare and is just that much more precious for its rarity. Just go. Go to both. Read. You will be better informed and better citizens for it. Thank me later.

Just Damn
I have a very good friend, excuse me, very good friends - a nuclear family. Husband, wife, young daughter. Both parents have a myriad of health issues but I've always thought how nice that they have a daughter who can help them with the problems life always seems to throw at the infirm.
Recently my friend told me that his daughter was having her own problems - pain, discomfort, sleeping problems. I was sorry to hear it but thought it might be some expression of a troubled genetic heritage and that it might be something that she could work her way through. Then the other shoe drops. I get a call yesterday that the child was examine and has been found to have a tumor on her spine at the base of her skull. It's not known yet whether it's operable and she's going in for a CAT scan today (or very shortly) to see how it lies.
I am praying that it is not malignant and has not metastasized. She's a good kid. I love that family dearly. I sit here with my bad joints and think of her and wish I could take her pain on myself. But those trades are only made in "Twilight Zone" episodes. I'll trust in God to do his will. As much as it pains me to think of her.

OK. Let's Try The Tomatoes Pic Now
Hmm. I think I figured out the problem. It was my mistake after all. So let's see if i can make this little splootch of magic work ...

A ha! It was my fault. And I'm not going to say what it was. Because a damn genius can figure out how to fix his mistakes. Dagnabbit.

The Intertubes Are Testing My Patience
Which is as sore as a gouty toe at the moment. Slow, slow, slow. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? My FiOs is running at about 1 Megabit instead of the 5 it should. Pages load with an error message though load actually when I click the "try again" button. Even Verizon's main page is grinding into what I hope is a load and that's taking donkey's years. Argh!
Is it just mine? Is anyone else having slowness issues? Is the heat making the Innerweb all lackadaisical and overcome with lassitude?
Me no likee.
But I'll upload a couple of pics from the Deck Farm™ just to pass the time. First, a "making of" the Erfbox.

And then a shot of the tomatoes, well, four of the six. The other two SuperSteak are to the left of the Erfbox. ... OK, Blogger is ignoring my request to post another picture. So I'll cut my losses and post this with the tomatoes pic (taken today) to follow. Argh and argh again.
UPDATE: Something was screwy in my computer. It hung on me and I re-booted. A hugely rare circumstance for the iMac I assure you. Thereupon things busted loose and now my 5Mb speeds are back in form. Yah-hah!

A Long-delayed Embed
Well, after going two weeks without giving sufficient brain power to the idea of an embed, I've settled back on one of my all-time favorites (and a guy I consider a friend) Jake Armerding. He has several uToob viddies up but the one I'm posting is one of my absolute favorites of his songs: "Little Boy Blue (North of North Dakota)." The venue is the Boston Folk Festival. And the introduction shows Jake at his best. He talks with the audience, makes that connection on perhaps not the personal level but certainly on a human level. You may not feel you've had the chance to talk to him on stage (and thank heaven for that! say other audience members) but you will have the feeling that he's talked honestly to you.
Another of my favorite performers, Mike Cross, does this perhaps better than any artist I've ever had the pleasure to experience. Mike and Jake not only write and perform fantastic music but they introduce songs with stories and give explanations of the genesis of songs. It makes for a vastly more pleasant listener experience.
In any event, this song displays much of what makes Jake such a master songwriter: intelligent lyrics, humor a great hook and a great story. I love it. I hope you do too:

I'm A Damn Genius
It must be true because Rachel Lucas said so. And thereby my tale of prize winning is completed. Yes, I did come up with the new banner line on blog-goddess Rachel Lucas's site. And my prize is praise and a coffee mug. Which will do nicely, thank you very much. Should any Rachel readers click over here, thank you for the squint in my direction. I have been off my feed (ha! it's an RSS joke!) lately but hope that the return to blogging actual will spin up this week. And look at that. Two obscure "Battlestar Galactica" references in one sentence!
And I caught the bottom slot in the Wizbang caption contest. A good week for me.

Details To Follow
I recently had the good fortune to win a prize. The actual prize is not exactly life-changing (I opted for a coffee mug) but given the context, I'm quite proud of my effort. I can't say what it is yet but once some changes have been made on another blog, I'll be explicit. And when I get my prize, I will be taking pictures which you will see here on PoW.

Briefly Mentioned
Paul Reed Smith Guitars has opened registration for the Experience 2008. I'm registered and this year I'm going to take the factory tour. Click the link and see a little viddy from PRSH (Paul Reed Smith Himself - yes, he is called that by the fan base). It was a great time even though I only saw Johnny Hiland play. This year, I'm going to see a lot more.

Still Hurtin' For Certain & Many Apologies
My apologies for the lack of blogging lately but my musculo-skeletal system has just been running on the "outraged" setting for the last week or so. It's possible it may have something to do with the weather as I talked very recently with a diabetic friend (whose diabetes was only diagnosed in this year and who has such a multitude of health issues that I should really just STFU about my health in comparison) who told me that he, his fibromyalgic wife and their daughter (who is coming early into her genetic heritage, sadly) all had a horribly painful week last week. At least I think I'm coming out of it. I am typing and my left shoulder is not screaming at me. My "terror wrist" is not plaguing me and I've actually been able to get a couple of things done of late.
I'll follow my apologies for the lack of posting with apologies for the health whining. It just not ... attractive. I know. But it is explanatory. So I'll try to dial down the whine level and pump up the explanatory quotient. ... Try. I said "try."
You'll have noticed a lack of the weekend music embed. I was thinking of putting up Peter Gabriel's seminal stop-motion animated viddy for "Sledgehammer" from the superb "So" disc. But I am reluctant to do so since it's almost moved beyond "seminal" into "cliché." But unless I can dig up something more interesting, I may post it tomorrow anyway. And I'll apologize for an uninspired choice too.
On the asset side of the general ledger, I have the Deck Farm™ actually planted with only one of the "Zavory" peppers looking like it might not make it through. But I think it will. Pictures have not been taken - yet. This evening when I change the hummingbird feeder, I'll go all snap happy and post some results.
I watched, with friends, one of the audition episodes of "Last Comic Standing" and was somewhat nonplussed. Just not that funny. If these people are making a living from their "comedy," then the Enigmatic Misanthrope and I are in the wrong line of work. Put the two of us together, add a six pack and we could blow about 90% of the "comics" off the stage. And that's just working off the cuff. If we prepared some material, we'd have our own sitcom offer. Rather encouraging actually. I've pulled my scriptwriting and comedy writing books off the shelf and started on a nice long legal pad. I've posted the random joke to the blog but I'm going to try to make it pay for a change. Wish me luck.
All that said, I thank you who are patient enough to check back at PoW even in the hiatus of posting. I'll try to give you more reason to visit even as I sit and bitch to myself about myself.

Ow Ow Ow
Lack of blogging has been exacerbated by my feeling like hell on a damp towel. My bad left shoulder plagued me so much overnight that I got perhaps two hours of fitful sleep. And my other joints have ached so horribly lately that I have been off my feet as much as possible.
Besides, there is much going on in the blogosphere that my comment is rendered moot mostly. I hope to get the "thinking jelly" back in form and post more shortly.

That aside, I wish Joe Sherlock - businessman, raconteur, and friend of the blog - a swift and full recovery from his recent cardiac troubles. Even hospitalized he can outblog me. Grrr!

I'll Be Damned
I have to add something to my music embed post featuring The Bird and The Bee. I strolled over to the Wikipedia page on the band to discover that The Bird who I offhandedly called a "cute chick singer" is actually Inara George. She's the daughter of the late, great Lowell George of "Little Feat" fame. How about that? That's nigh onto musical royalty and I had no idea. And no wonder I liked her so much.
This is your fat man in the bathtub, signing off.

Lychee Sorbet
A foodie post for Memorial Day. Why not? Something light and cool and refreshing for the onset of hot weather. The following recipe is my second assay of the project after the first was just not a success. I used Trader Joe's canned lychees (hmm, not finding an image of the can online which means I have to drag out the camera again...). One can drained, one can with syrup into the blender. juice of one lemon, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of triple sec. Blitz until well pureed. Pour into the ice cream maker, process and freeze. Rather nice actually.
After having made my own I did my Google search on "lychee sorbet" to find something somewhat interesting. The few recipes at which I looked used exactly the amount of canned lychee that seemed reasonable to me: one drained, one undrained. No recipe used triple sec but I am a believer in having some alcohol in home-made sorbets for texture. Alcohol helps keep the ice crystals small and keep the sorbet soft.
I tried lime juice in the first batch and it is not recommended. Too harsh. The juice of a lemon is just right. Though I suppose you could up that to one and a half and still be to the good.
Other flavors that I think would work well with this one: ginger (ya think?) and mint. I may cook up a mint simple syrup if I make another batch and see what that does for the crowd. But all that experimentation being as it may, lychee sorbet is rather good. As long as you like the taste of lychee.

Not Exactly A Music Embed
But it will do for this holiday weekend. It's a commercial for the Discovery Channel but it's one of theb est commercials that's been made in a long, long time. It's short, it's catchy, it's punchy and it features Adam and Jamie, MC Hawking, Mike Rowe - great guys all. So, it's an ad. Ihope you like it as much as I do:

The Long-Delayed Music Embed
I offer up my apologies for the long delay in posting the (ahem!) weekend music embed but I have been dealing with a pinched nerve in my right wrist (or, as I call it, the "terror-wrist") which has made doing just about everything annoying and painful. Today it seems to have subsided. Which means I'm willing to type again. And the blogosphere heaves a collective sigh of indifference.
So what's the big deal here? A made-on-the-Mac music viddy of a song by an outfit called "The Bird and The Bee." The obligatory guy thing requires me to say: Cute chick singer there. And I like the voice - high and sweet. I don't think she's a great singer but she does what she does very well. It's always a pleasure when you see an artist who understands how to work with her material. Though I should give him his due - it is a duo after all. I also like the electric piano intro. If you search out the official viddy of the song, it's rather amusing to see him playing what looks like a grand or baby grand and the noise coming out is absolutely electric. It has a very Chick Corea "Return To Forever" vibe if I'm not going too far back for a referent. At any rate, an interesting group.
But it's the way that Dennis Liu used a whole raft of Mac applications to "textualize" the lyrics and form the video out of the lyrics. If you follow the link to the uToob page, you'll see a screenful of links about what was used to create the video. It's more than's worth bothering with here but if you want to burn some time, please check it out.
At this point, I'd better just let the viddy speak (sing) for itself. I rather like it. I hope you do too.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. What appears below is currently running in the cinema lobe of EM's

"Thinking Jelly"...

Can you guess what these three images have in common? (hint..one of them makes me sad)

Well..beat me to death...two in one day

I recently ran across this interesting list of musicians and their crimes:
(certainly an incomplete listing but I added a few)
Franz Liszt: treason, seduction, debt.
Johnny Cash: landed in jail, not prison, seven times in his life for various misdemeanors, most of them drug-related. Each stay lasted only one night.
Vince Neil: dangerous driving resulting in death.
Huddie Ledbetter: murder.
James Brown: weapons, assault, failure to stop for police.
Keith Richards: drugs.
Paul McCartney: drugs.
Rick James: sexual assault and torture.
Merle Haggard: theft.
Steve Earle: drugs.
Aaron Neville: theft.
Slick Rick: attempted murder, assault, illegal weapons.
Tupac Shakur: rape.
Chuck Berry- armed robbery, did 5 years in prison after being arrested under the Mann Act, income tax evasion and some really weird stuff including being sued by several women who claimed that he had installed a video camera in the ladies' bathrooms at two of his St. Louis restaurants. A class action settlement was eventually reached with 59 women on the complaint.
Michael Jackson was charged, tried and acquitted of child molestation. He should be charged with abuse of a corpse..his own.
Lil' Kim was charged, tried and convicted of conspiracy and perjury.
R. Kelly-child pornography charges.
Ike Turner-wife beating coke head scumbag.
Gary Glitter-tried and convicted of child sexual abuse.

But this freak..”The Mad Genius of Rock and Roll” Phil Spector was charged and tried for murder (and due to a mistrial, he'll have to do it all again).

hmmmm... the resemblance is uncanny...

A favorite of mine ....

*****PROFANITY WARNING!!! (Obviously)***

His attitude and passion suggest an emphasis on quality and unwavering high standards to me. I respect those attributes. That's why Gordon's face looks like 300 miles of Arizona fire trails: the STRESS!!! He's only 40. It’s a damn shame he cannot run for political office in this country..

I couldn't resist.....you can guess where this headed...I've also heard he's absolutely terrified of his wife, as well he should be: she is simply stunning!!

Nothing Today
Still dry of writing. Deck Farm™ to finish setting up today. I think the long-delayed weekend embed will go up this evening. Otherwise, check back tomorrow. That is all.

Yawning Like A Big Dog
You will have noticed a hiatus in postings. I certainly have. But sometimes one just doesn't feel like writing. I even bagged out on my weekend music embed because I didn't want to get into all the who-shot-John about why I picked what I picked. But, as we say in the newz biz, it's a TK. Probably later today. After I go out to lunch with friends at a dim sum (in Mandarin: dian xin, meaning "dot heart") restaurant here in the NoVa. Strangely, this fan dian (literally "food shop") which is one of the two best Chinese places I've eaten at is about two blocks from the other best Chinese, the justly famous Peking Gourmet Inn.
So, not much lately but more later. Had prime rib last night at the excellent Sweetwater Tavern. Yuh-um!

Linky Linky
There's a thicket of good posting up over at Gateway Pundit today. Click the link, read much. I really should add GP to the blogroll since I check it at least a few times a week.

Burpee's Finest
Or at least the ones I wanted this year. I've labeled the plants with the exception of the Supersteak tomatoes. So let me explain the layout of the plants in their little cardboard bed: first row on the left is the Hot Lemon Pepper, next comes Zavory low-heat habanero, then the Biker Billy Jalapenos, next is the Golden Giant bell pepper and then the Red Delicious bell peppers. The tomatoes are lined up perpendicularly to the peppers with the Health Kick in front and the Supersteak in back. And there you have it. Rather, here you have it:

Keep in mind that the lens I used is a short one so there is some foreshortening. The tomato plants are of a decent size even though the Golden Giant pepper plants are the tallest on the group.
I would have planted them today but it was still rainy and right now it is co-old. Well, cold for mid May. If the deck dries out over night, I'll finish the ErfBox prep and plant the plants. And the Deck Farm™ will be in bidness!
UPDATE: Here's a clip from the Burpee site with a bit of info on the so-called "Health Kick" tomato:

A breakthrough in breeding, this tomato is actually healthier for you than others you can grow or buy. Packed with the 50% more of the beneficial antioxidant lycopene, this prolific saladette produces a bountiful crop of 4 ounce, sweet red fruits.

"Saladette." Sounds like one of the dancing characters in "Veggie! The Musical."

There Will Be Posting
Not blood. Just posting. No blood for posting! But may I have a milkshake?
OK, enough conflated references for now. Suddenly I'm Lileks or something. Jeez, Edit'!

Actually this post is something of a placeholder for some post that I hope to put either this evening or certainly on the weekend. First, pictures of the plants were taken and I'm going to take some shots of the EarthBoxes and the ErfBoxes in progress. All of the EarthBoxes are full of soil and needing on the planting to be productive members of society again. One ErfBox is almost filled with soil (I killed one bag and figured I'd cap the box and re-build some soil-dabbling gumption before tapping the next bag of potting soil) and the last one is as yet unsoiled.
One nice thing seems to be that the garbage bad cover on the ErfBox seems to work pretty well. Score!
So, pictures will be forthcoming. And the weekend music embed is looking like it'll be another Apple-related one albeit nothing official from the folks at One Infinite Loop. I'll probably post it early Saturday if you want to come back for it. So, I'm off to deal with the deck (like a deck of cards, but it's my patio deck, see? I'm so funny!) and such excitement as laundry brings. Sheesh. My life.

I'm Always Thinking
Today I may have thought of the most revolting thing ever: gay sumo wrestlers.
Feel free to top that in comments.

Uh Oh
I can't remember the last time I ate pork. I think I have hamnesia.

Mmmmm! EscarGO!
I'll split it with you.
(I tried to embed this but it didn't work.)

Good Advice Any Day Of The Week
Hat tip to a member of the Birds and Moons forum (dedicated to PRS guitars).

Not So Much Baby Steppin' Any More
According to the brilliant UPS tracking system, the plants which will constitute the Deck Farm™ 3.0 are on the truck to my house today. Woo hoo! I will be soiling myself and planting ere long.
UPDATE: The plants are here. They are spread out on my kitchen table (spreading little bits of dirt over all the crap that's already there) and watered. I'll give them a day to acclimate to being out of delivery and then ... the planting begins. Oh and pictures. There should be pictures.

Even Before I Was Born
If Ann Althouse can blog about the past, I figure it's fair game even if she's dealing with bigger things like visible camisoles than I. This excursion into the mists of time goes back to Korea of the 1950s. Yes, there is a war going on even if it's officially called a "police action" due to the fortuitous circumstance that let the United Nations act in the in the interest of freedom for once.
Ellis O. Briggs is the United States Ambassador to South Korea and an exemplar of the great tradition of the gentleman diplomat. The sort of man who would know much of the world beyond his vocation. A man of encyclopedic knowledge. Maybe.
When hosting visitors to the embassy on some occasion, he was asked about a flower growing on the grounds. Not actually knowing the type of flower but possibly thinking it best to answer the question nonetheless, he said, "That's an aster." When the questioner said something on the order of "That's not like any aster I know." he replied, "It's a Korean aster."
Thus is brilliance established and a diplomat exemplified.

Oh And By The Way
I mentioned the graduation party I went to. I drank a Corona Light. Pffttt! Whiz water. No flavor at all. Miller freakin' Lite has more oomph. Why in Gawd's name does anyone drink this crap?

Delayed Embed
I do love me some excellent guitarists. Case in point is Al Petteway who was a DC area guy until he moved down to the mountains of the old North State. I saw/met him and his partner in virtuosity, Amy White, a couple of years ago at a house concert in Delaware. In one of those instances that's not always to be expected but happens more often than not, both Al and Amy were wonderfully gracious and friendly. I seem to expect that those who are superbly talented will carry an attitude. Yet those who have "an attitude" are usually not as talented as those who go through this world under-appreciated.
The song is "Smoky Mountain Morning. " It is highly representative of his acoustic work - wonderfully melodic, beautifully played. If you have a chance to see Al and/or Amy live, please do. You'll be in for a treat. And if you bought any of their CDs ... same result. Enjoy:

Posting To Resume Shortly
I have been unwell. Essentially abed for three days. Saturday was spent with as bad a headache as I have ever had in my life. The kind where any movement caused additional pain. If there's any consolation, it's that I've hardly been able to eat so maybe I'm down a pound or two.
At least I'm more or less out of it today. Fingers crossed. But I'm making bacon and eggs for breakfast and a pot of tea so things in cold, everso rainy NoVa should be moving ahead after a hiatus.
Even a delayed music embed when I find something I want to comment on.

No Blogging Thursday
Just a moment of advance notice. I feel awful which means I'll probably get a late start on the day in which I have to get a few things done. For something interesting, hit the "Peeve Farm" in the blogroll and click on the obvious photo in a post. Way - I mean way cool.

Da Langwitch
I have to add another brief note from my continuing reading of John Barth's "The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor." He has a wonderful turn of phrase to describe a tambourine being played: "sizzling and biffing." Short, sweet and perfectly descriptive. Can you not hear a tambourine when you read those words?

I Like To Call It Brekkies
I think it's a Brit English thing. But what it is, is a recipe sent to me by the XMBD NMSE for your brunching pleasure. It a prep ahead dish but it looks well worth the effort:

French Toast Souffle (12 servings)

Ingredients:
- 10 cups (1 inch) cubed sturdy white bread (such as Pepperidge Farm Hearty White, about 16 slices)
- 1 8 ounce block cream cheese, softened
- 8 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups 2% reduced fat milk
- 2/3 cup Half-n-Half
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions:
First day:
1. Place bread cubes in a 13x9 baking dish coated with cooking spray.
2. Beat cream cheese at medium speed of mixer until smooth.
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Add milk, Half-n-Half, maple syrup, vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
5. Pour cream cheese mixture over top of bread, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Second day:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Remove souffle from fridge. Let stand 30 minutes.
3. Bake uncovered @ 375 for 50 minutes or until set. Sprinkle powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup and mixed berries.

I am amused. Blogger's spell check offers the following options for the word "souffle" which is flagged for spelling: snuffle, scuffle and shuffle. I'll shuffle over to get me some so's I can snuffle it up and avoid a scuffle over it.

Happy Sinko de My-Oh
Actually, my intarweb this morning was running some kind of messed up. I couldn't load such essential sites as InstaPundit. Oy! How can I gather my knowledge of the world if I can't load sites? - Don't answer that! -
OK, yeah, I actually read the newspaper too. But that gets my hands dirty. Heh. Indeed. (oops - sorry - a symptom of not getting my fill of Insty methinks)

I'd like to point out that today is also Boy's Day in Japan, celebrated with the flying of koinobori (carp streamers) in honor of the male children in the family. It's traditional to have one streamer for each boy with size differences matching the ages of the boys. I love koinobori. They are one of the beautiful things in Japan. So happy Boy's Day to males everywhere! You'll always be some mother's son.

I went to a graduation party for the son of friends last night. A Chinese dumpling party to be precise. I brought the remains of my kim-chi dumpling filling and it was pronounced as excellent by a serious dumpling-eating crowd. I'm humbly proud.

On About The Weekend Embed
I had a nice, long chat with my friend the Guitar Nazi last night and it got me to pick up my PRS Hollowbody II and actually practice again. My fingertips are acting snotty this morning for being so suddenly abused. Ha! They don't know the half of it. I had so much fun that I'm going to practice even longer today. And from now on. There's a song I want to play. So much so that I decided to make it the weekend embed. Nick Lowe and Rockpile (an under-appreciated band in my mind) with "Cruel to be Kind." Great pop song. Oh and you can see Dave Edmunds in the mix as well. Other things of note, in my (to steal a word from Billy Beck) guitarded mind are the very sweet Strat solo and the guitar Lowe himself is playing. Why? Because I have no idea what make it is. Double cutaway, large lower bout, trapezoidal headstock. And the performance was back in 1979. The body shape could almost be a PRS Santana model but Paul was barely started as a luthier when this viddy was shot. If anyone has better info, please drop a comment. Otherwise, enjoy a blast from the past:

Reportage
A while back I mentioned that I managed to stab myself in the leg with the box cutter I was using to trim the interior "floor" of the ErfBox. And I promised to leave a record of the event. So, here is a pic of the pants I was wearing, the hole in them and the bloodstain that resulted. I include in the picture a pen, for scale, that was turned out of osage orange and walnut wood by a friend of mine. I may as well put something good and cool in an otherwise kinda revoltin' pic. So without further ado:

To Avoid Being Stereotyped
Avoid stereotypical behavior.

Lack Of Blogging Will Continue
Albeit briefly. I've been busy. Apart from the continuing pain of bad hips and a shoulder that has gone over to the enemy side, I had Lycurgus come through on his semi-annual trip of business. We had kim-chi dumplings. And I still have one container of the filling. Sounds like dinner tonight is taken care of. Then yesterday Jake was in town, as in DC town, which meant a trip to the dark side. I'm not all that fond of the look of urban decay and H St. NE is not exactly a place to avoid it. But I found parking and the show was great. Today I had my groomer take care of my pelt, which always takes more time that I'd like but she does a damn good job so .... [shrug] Now I have take care of some business I've been working on in the last couple of days and the return to regular blogging should be just after that.
For the nonce, I leave you with a rare, mid-week music embed of the Jake doing Paul Simon's "Graceland." He finished his show last night with it and I think he did it better last night than in the uToob viddy. But it's well worth a listen. There's no doubt that the song is Paul Simon's but Jake takes it in a new direction that's not so far off the original as to lose that elemental connection but still re-create it. Aaron Neville did the same thing with Van Morrison's "Crazy Love" on the "Phenomenon" soundtrack. So, here's Jake's show-stopping, show closer:



UPDATE: I had the show's location as H St. NW. Bzzzt! NW is generally nice in DC. NE is ... well ... not so much.

Weekend Music Embed
By way of welcoming the Enigmatic Misanthrope to Pugs of War, I make this weekend's embed the remarkable performance of Queen at Wembley Stadium in 1986. The opening of this demonstrates the absolute genius of Freddie Mercury as a showman. He brings the entire crowd into the song and the crowd follows. Then he has the temerity to mildly denigrate his own singing! Not that anyone in that crowd ever would believe that. The song is "Under Pressure" which, according to the extended blurb on YouTube, evolved from a jam with David Bowie whence everyone involved got a shard of the writing credit. That's class. The song is nearly iconic with "Bohemian Rhapsody" bumping it out of the trophy case of icons. Personally, I prefer this to that.

From The Bookshelf
I'm about a third of the way through John Barth's "The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor," a book of slight vintage (copyrighted in 1991) and, in the Barthian tradition, of great invention and humor. But my intent is not a review. It's to copy out a passage that I found particularly appealing.

At forty-two, Jane Price was a striking woman still, long and lean like their daughter though more amply tushed and breasted, an eye-turner yet in snug jeans and a sleeveless top that set off her fine arms and shoulders. Her sunglasses were perched stylishly atop her walnut hair, the more attractive for its seasoning with a touch of gray, as was her face for the crow's-feet forming at the corners of her eyes. Those eyes were the color but (in present company, at least) not the warmth of the Sir Francis Drake Channel, which So Far had crisscrossed for the past week; her tone was no warmer.

So Far is the bareboat charter rented by the narrator and his family for an off-season cruise in the Virgin Islands. I haven't bothered to determine where that channel is but it's immaterial to the passage of prose. I read that paragraph and I am enchanted. That sounds like as beautiful a woman as I could conjure for the circumstance - a "striking" (I think that's a wonderful word to describe an attractive woman) woman who is not merely aging with grace but with greater beauty still.
Of course this description comes in the midst of the narrator's telling of his (and her) infidelity. Perhaps that's all a part and parcel of the necessary dramatic tension. But I see that woman in my mind's eye and want to ask the narrator, "Are you nuts?"
After writing the above, I thought I might follow my own link to the Amazon page and cast an eye on the customer reviews. Interesting. The book would seem to be a bit polarizing. It rates four stars but it's divided between 11 five-star reviews and three one-star reviews. There are no three-star reviews. It seems the book is more generally loved but those who dislike it, hate it. Nothing "meh" about this one it seems.

I Want To Have A Show About Opera
For the sole reason that I'd use the name "Don G. O'Vanni." And I'd have a female co-host who'd be called "Donna A. Mobylay."

I Take It Back, I Take it All Back
A while back I blogged a little "American Idol." I said I liked the one with the bifurcated skunk stripe who's been bounced for a while now. And I said I liked Carly Smithson. Well, not any more (read the whole thing). It seems that Carly "Smithson" has had quite the career over her short life. When she was Carly Hennessy, she toured as Cosette in Les Miz, put out an album that, despite being backed by millions of MCA cash sold in the hundreds.
"AI." methinks, is about giving undiscoverd, new talent the chance to reach a nationwide if not worldwide audience. It's not about giving professionals who've failed a second or third chance.
So, Carly Smithson please go straight to hell. Do not pass Go. Do not collect any more votes on "American Idol." AI? Try FU.

Passing Along A Deal
A little love from the Bargainist website: A sale on chockies at Amazon. Here's the scoopage, scooped directly from the Bargainist:

Amazon - Extra 50% off select chocolate

In one of the best grocery sales we've seen at Amazon, they're cutting select chocolate items by 50%. Use coupon code CHAWCLAT at checkout. Some of the eligible products include Nestle Toll House Semi Sweet Chocolate Chunk Morsels, Hershey's Sticks Filled with Carmel, M&M Mars Milkyway Miniatures, and many more. Offer good while supplies last.

The Dagoba Lemon Ginger chocolate bar looks particular toothsome to a confirmed ginger-holic.

Weekend Music Embed
I've been wanting to post a viddy by the superbly talented ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro (though I rather think that some time ago, before the weekend embeds, I posted one of his uToob vids). I think of Jake S. as the "other" Jake since Jake Armerding is "the" Jake. In point of fact, the Jake is coming to DC on the last day of the month and I'm going to get my ample ass down to the big town to see him. The connection is deeper though as I saw the Jake open for the other Jake in Philly.
The song is the Beatles' classic "In My Life" which is one of my all time faves. Really, who doesn't like this song? It's been on my mind lately since it was used by a local radio personality, Mike "Don Geronimo" Sorce of the "Don and Mike Show." He left the airwaves at the end of last week when he found he no longer had the heart for broadcasting after losing his wife in an auto accident a few years ago. He played "In My Life" at his sign off and it was strangely moving for me who had come to dislike Mr. Sorce for the lousy way he treated listeners. But he gave an emotional and touching valediction ushered out by the original of this song. Enjoy:

Meanwhile…”back at the ranch”..rumor has it..

“Come to “W. Jeffs Polygamy Bunny Ranch” and join the gorgeous babes who just wanna have fun... with each other! See why these prairie garbed girlfriends don't miss their boyfriends at all! This is the wildest, craziest assortment of hot Stepford-like girls you’ll ever find, all real and uncensored, only at the Polygamy Bunny Ranch! Join non-stop action and excitement, with this country s most valuable asset... zombie-eyed, Elvis-coiffed beauties anxious to bare their breasts! “

They are running a customer special: "If you come in the Polygamy Ranch and say, 'I'm pimping for Jeffs,' you get two bunnies for the price of one." Free set of “magic” underwear with each visit.

Am I the only one turned on here??

Steppin' The Deck Farm™
I have one of the homemade ErfBoxes (from now on the roll-my-own will just be called "ErfBox" while the store boughten ones will be called "EarthBoxes") complete. Looks like it'll work pretty well all things considered. The proof will be in the puttering. And the second is well on its way. I need to attach the pond basket and the 4" PVC support, drill out the drain hole in the side of the box and drill a slew of holes in the interior floor. But that's about it.
Oh, and I still haven't bought the potting soil but I'm going to try to hit Wally Mart today.
One other thing that looks intriguing is that I saved the outer rim of the tops which still "clip" onto the box. I should be able to use a sliced open contractor's garbage bag as the cover since I can clip it down all around. But I have real covers to spare so if it doesn't work, I'm (ha ha) "covered."

And speaking of slicing .... Do you know where the femoral artery is? Lucky for me my aim is not good. I was cutting down the interior floor this morning when the box cutter made a whoopsy-daisy and sank into my thigh. It's pretty impressive to see blood well up and flow out that fast. I'll take a snap of the pants and post it tomorrow (a slice hole and a blood stain - just for the record). Now I have to buy another pair of casual pants dammit.
In other news: Nature is about to blow a big-ole bubblegum bubble outside my front door as the cherry tree is blooming out. Again, I'll take pics and post them.

Welcome!
I'd like to welcome the Enigmatic Misanthrope to the warm, encompassing folds, unnhhh, fold of Pugs of War. I extended an invitation to him to join me as a co-blogger and he has decided to take up the PoW cudgel. I couldn't be more happy to have him on board.

Here is a list of celebrities I expect may not make it to 2009…not in ranking order of course but none look particularly well…
1. Muhammad Ali- Cerebral Evaporation?
2. Jerry Lewis -Terminal Bitter Asshole-itis?
3. Lindsey Lohan- STD/Drug Overdose- Combination?
4. Dick Clark- Complete skin failure, dry rot?
5. Patrick Swazey- Dance Cancer, Horse trampling?
6. Farrah Fawcett- Anal Cancer, bowel obstruction, hairballs?
7. Elizabeth Taylor- Vomit Aspiration, Acute Alcohol Poisoning, Loneliness?
8. Zsa Zsa Gabor- Dismemberment by a “Dust Devil”, dry rot?
9. Amy Winehouse- STD/Drug Overdose- Combination?
10. Dame Margaret Thatcher- Cardiac Oxidation?
11. Paul Newman- Blue-eyed Rollers Rhea, dry rot, cooking accident?

Given my druthers I'd choose to have a big cartoon anvil come whistling out of the sky and accordion me, with some cool brightly colored cartoon stars and stuff popping out.

You're The Cream In My Coffee
But not, I repeat not! the lemon in my iced tead! (Hat tip to the Enigmatic Misanthrope.)

Linky Linky
Two great posts up over at Varifrank's place. "20 Reasons Why I'm Bitter" and Obama as the hypnotoad. (polite golf applause) Well played, sir. Well played. Though the image does make me wonder who put the collar on the hypnotoad.

Terminology
I read recently that aging hag-slut Madonna spends some insane amount of money (like $10K a month) on water that has been "blessed" by the charlatans who've set up this "Kabbalah" nonsense. Which set me thinking on the idea of this new celebrity-sucking cult. Since it come across as awfully like another celebrity-sucking cult yet it's based off a Jewish tradition, can we just call it "Ziontology" from now on?

And since our poor, aged, addled ex-President and peanut head Carter is going off to give aid and comfort to the scum of Hamas, can we just call him "Dhimmi Carter" from now on?

Weekend Embed
Today we reach back into the "grooveyard of forgotten favorites" to steal a line from El Rushbo. Steve Winwood with the title track from the "Back In The High Life Again" disc from the mid-80s. Any song on that disc is worthy of selection as a feature but I went with this song as it is so silky and optimistic. Also, part of the video was shot in my neck-o-th-woods: the train station is in Manassas, Va. Pretty cool.
According to my iTunes info, the disc was issued in 1986. This was a singular year in that two albums of nigh perfect songs were issued that year: "High Life" (of course) and Peter Gabriel's "So." A disc where every song is superb is rare ("Who's Next" comes to mind, Joni Mitchell's "Hejira") but two of them being issued at essentially the same time is worth noting. Though Winwood and Gabriel have musical ability of depth and style so perhaps it's not so strange. Still. Enjoy:

More Baby Steppin'
Another small advance on the home-made ErfBoxes. I cut filler tubes (water tubes) from 1 inch PVC pipe. I'm pleased with the way they came out. Ooh. I'll take pictures! More posting on that then. Also tomorrow I'll buy potting soil and begin the process of emptying out the prior years boxes. And I'll be cutting the 4 inch PVC pipe for the interior bottom (i.e. that on which the soil sits) as well.
I think the plants should be delivered sometime in the next several days.
One thought did strike me as I was finishing up the filler tubes. If someone called me and asked, "What are you doing?" I'd have to reply, "Oh, just deburring the filler tube apertures." These are the days of our lives.

UPDATE: Sans pictures yet but it's still a possibility. I have cut four sections of 4" PVC pipe to provide two supports for each interior bottom. I have cut the tops out of their edges but have yet to fit them to the level at which they'll be. Once I get them fitted, I'll drill out the multitudinous holes for airflow (and for strapping the pond baskets and support pieces on) and set the bottoms in place.
At this point, I still need to buy soil (hel LO Wally Mart!) and connect the hose pipe for the water flow. But I'm steadily more advanced toward the home-made boxen. Fingers crossed.

Not Much Blogging
Trying to get some things done today. And my left shoulder is (trying to avoid the word ... and failing) effed. Not much sleep the last couple of nights as it was hugely difficult to find a sleeping position where the shoulder didn't yield considerable pain. Actually sleeping on it seemed to work but since that means sleeping on my bad left hip, I can't do that for very long. I think it's a neck thing as well as the shoulder. And it's not like the ibuprofen I live on is going to do much beyond what it's already doing.
Ah nuts. Old age is not for sissies.

Just Whiskey
You can forget the Tango Foxtrot part for this gem...

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Bonus!
After posting below that I would have preferred to post Emm Gryner's music video of her song "Julia," I thought I might see if that video might be available somewhere on the web even though it's AWOL on uToob. Score! And it has the embed code.
I find this song to be enchanting and mysterious. The lyrics are, to me, all implication and misdirection. They are evocative but I can't say what she meant in writing them.

"Julia leave the dark alone
Every day is better than the last
Julia leave the dark alone
Speak your mind 'cause this life's going fast"

I swear her delivery gives me a frisson when I listen. The music is spare and haunting. In fact, I find Emm's arranging to be incomparable. She can make a big piano ballad with a cello come across like rock and roll. I hope you like it too:

Julia - Emm Gryner
UPDATE: I didn't mean that this song comes across as rock and roll. It decidedly doesn't. Despite its use of piano and cello. But other of her songs (I'm more thinking of the songs she covered on her "Girl Versions" disc) work that way.
Also, as much as I love the video, it does reveal what I consider to be a noticeable flaw in Emm's singing - breath control. The quick and audible intake of air just prior to the singing is all over this one. I'd love to see her take a course of opera training which would give her the tools to breathe unobtrusively.
I'd better listen to some of her newer music to see if that's changed. The problem with this small imperfection is that once I notice it, I can't ignore it. So perhaps the fault is mine.

Linky Love
A brief for all you sky-fie fans out there. io9 is a blog for things tech-y and sci-fi-y and geek-y and any number of things to which you could add an "-y." I don't consider it an every day read but I hit it at least once a week and believe I'm keeping up thereby. Apart from watching BSG and suchlike. Speaking of the battlescar: very good opening for the final season. Not perfect but better than 80% of what's out there, 90% of the genre output with the exception of what Joss Whedon does.
Oh lord. I'm a nerd.

Weekend Music Embed
I bring back the wonderful Emm Gryner in a live performance of "Almighty Love" on Irish TV. The song is from the superb "Summer of High Hopes" disc. I was hoping to find a viddy oher song "Julia" which how I first came to know of her. But it doesn't seem to exist on uToob. So I went with what's below. Don't miss the intro for a spot of info that's pretty impressive. I'm not the biggest Bono fan in the owrld but he does know music. For your delectation:

The Secret Of His Success
Ted Turner, fresh from making his money off the humped backs of his bison by cutting them up and selling their grilled bits, has decided to look to the future with his new restaurant venture:

If
If the Democrats reach back to push Al Gore into the mix as their candidate, won't that put the party in a pre-Kerry-ous position?

A Little Something New
If you peek over to the right you'll see a new link on my sidebar: "visit my store on cafepress!" Fairly self-explanatory innit? A couple of folks wondered if they could get the "OK McCain Then" bumper sticker. So I set it up on a store. It was easier to put it on a whole bunch of items so you may have to scroll through more crap than you'd ever buy. But you can get one if you so desire.
I hasten to add that the pricing in "my" store has absolutely no markup. The prices listed are CafePress's prices. I'd love you to buy something but I'm not making any money off you. Maybe when I come up with some original Pugs of War art, I'll make some products available and charge you a buck. Until then, I give. I give because I love. I love snark.

OK. Bite Me Then
This is an update on the savings post below wherein I was so pleased with myself about getting an inexpensive polo shirt. I'm still pleased with myself because I saved a couple of bucks but I didn't save nearly as much as I'd thought. I actually looked at the tag when I snipped it this morning (I'm wearing it now and it's quite comfortable). The price of this shirt, which hanes.com was asking $22, is $13.98. In fact, it's online here for that price. So, in essence, I paid just short of a buck for tax and shipping by buying with the coupon.
I'll tell you though, if I'd ponied up $22 for a shirt that arrived with a tag saying $14, I'd be so pissed off.
UPDATE: I didn't give hanes.com enough credit. The shirt wasn't $22 at their site. It was $16. Still $2 more than the tagged price but not an outrageous markup. Thus I retract my offer for them to chomp me. I'm just nice like that.

On the other hand, the Outer Banks website might prove to be a source for good, inexpensive clothing. I'll have to see how this wears.

Easter At Pug Acres North
As you can see, pugs are not into hunting wabbits much a'tall. That would be "cranky old bastard" Fred on the lap, Panda on the right and Chino in the middle. Thanks to the XMBD NMSE for the pic.

Would You, Or Would You Not Love This?
I'm listening to Dennis Miller talk about Bobby Flay winning a throw down with some woman who billed herself as the queen of mac and cheese. Which sets me thinking about mac and cheese. And I keep coming back to a dish with a mix of cheeses (heavy on the sharp white cheddar) and jalapeno pepper chopped into it.
I'll make that dish when I've dropped a century. About November.
A quick Googling results in this recipe at RecipeZaar. Looks good.

April Foolage
I think I'm past it. I haven't seen an amusing or truly funny April Fool's joke in several years now. I invite anyone to post a comment or a link to something that will tickle the funny bone. There must be some out there somewhere.

The Dan Is Everywhere!
As usual, it starts with Instapundit with a "Babylon Sisters" riff which is noted by the VodkaMan who brings in "The Fez." I, of course, have to weigh in on the comments. So what does Prof. Reynolds do to top it? Today he hits a line from "Black Friday." I sense a meme.
Actually, Steely Dan is like "The Simpsons" in a way. Both have been around so long and have so many words out there that it's likely you can find some verbiage to use as a comment on any situation you face in either one. Not to mention universals like "D'oh!" and"Woo hoo!"