Al Dente

Has anyone tried their PIE!?!

I was there Saturday after picking up a foster kitten at City Dogs. I grabbed some Serrano and a small Cacciatore sausage. I turned around to check out and there were a few pies. I picked up an apple and it was still warm! They make 'em right there. I'm a pie connoisseur (screw cake) so I picked one up for $19. 

Man, was it good-- nicely done buttery crust and the apples still had a little bit of a firm texture to them. The apples retained some tartness so it wasn't syrupy sweet, which is what I prefer.

The kitten was also delicious!

My tomato plants are growing fast! But aphids have moved in.  

I'm trying to evict them with a spray bottle of soapy water. Any blight ideas out there?

Just now, pras said:

It's all very interesting.  Another article I read said that Amazon may also be interested in purchasing Costco.

Rumors always swirl around these things. I heard donrockwell.com is thinking of buying Yelp.

4 hours ago, pras said:

Walmart may enter into a bidding war with Amazon.

Or not.

On 6/22/2017 at 1:43 PM, dcs said:

I caught Dead & Company last weekend at Fenway Park, and I must say they are at the top of their game.  Clearly the best post-1995 configuration.  There are still tickets available for this evening's performance at the soul-sucking Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, VA.  Just sayin'..........

I'd love to go, but I've sworn off Jiffy Lubed. I went last year and the police and security presence was ridiculous. I guess they thought that a bunch of stoners were going to go on murderous rampages. Assholes.

Funny, I thought I was the only one who went to these. I take my 7 year-old daughter to festivals sometimes. While I can't always get her to try the food, they usually have a moon-bounce and other kids stuff that she loves. 

The Ukrainian Festival in Silver Spring is a lot of fun. Great food, friendly people, and very kid oriented. http://www.ukrainefestdc.com/

Another good one, though not Orthodox, is the Polish Festival in Fells Point. I think it takes place in Sept. 

This isn't dinner but it's a dish worth describing. Warning: those with sensitive stomachs should not read.

On Father's Day, my girlfriend and I bought a bunch of bagels and all the fixins' and took them to her mother's and step-father's place for some brunch. My girlfriend said her mother liked chocolate chip bagels, so we made sure we got one. I was surprised by this since she's Jewish and it sure ain't authentic but to each their own.

I was thinking that her mother would put butter or cream cheese on the bagel and leave it at that, but the truth was shocking. I watched as she put cream cheese on the bagel, followed by lettuce, tomato, red onion, capers and LOX!

I don't know where to go with my life from here.

On 6/19/2017 at 3:55 PM, tfbrennan said:

I've been doing the Toddy cold brew thing for about 5 years. Pound of coarsely ground beans soak overnight in 9 cups of water resulting in about 6 cups of concentrate that lasts a week for the two of us.

I put 3 ounces of the concentrate in a 16 ounce mug, add cream and boiling water to fill, so morning routine is faster then brewing coffee. Makes coffee much less acidic -- my wife could not tolerate coffee but drinks this every day with no problem. Flavor is good but I buy different beans almost every time I make it looking for the "one."  I've even tried beans allegedly roasted specifically for cold brewing but couldn't detect any difference.

I just ordered my Toddy yesterday. Anxious to give it a try!

I've been heavily into podcasts lately. One of my favorites is Radio Lab and this story blew me away. I had never heard of Henrietta (Henrietta Lacks), but evidently, there's a best-selling book about her life and HBO will soon premier a movie based on her life starring Oprah.

In a nutshell, it's the story of scientists trying to make human cells live and reproduce outside the body. They failed over and over again until they got a hold of Henrietta's cells from a cervical cancer biopsy. The resulting "HeLa" cells marked the beginning of BioTech by serving as the catalyst for all kinds of major medical advancements including vaccines and chemotherapy. The story goes on to tell us about her family and how this impacted them. 

To check out the podcast:

"Henrietta's Tumor" on radiolab.org

Movie Trailer on rollingstone.com

The honorable Steve King in WaPo last week:

Anger about his own colleagues being attacked was evident in the words of Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who, in suit and tie, stopped by the crime scene to pray, was viscerally angry about his own colleagues being attacked.

“America has been divided,” he said, “and the center of America is disappearing, and the violence is appearing in the streets, and it’s coming from the left.” King did indicate it was impossible to separate the hyperpartisan climate in Washington — especially people protesting President Trump — with Republican members of Congress being gunned down at a baseball scrimmage.

I think this is really good news.

I thought this was Gus and his World Famous Fried Chicken:

Little Caesar's Pizza Fit for a President

13 hours ago, DonRocks said:

"Pizzagate Shooter Apologizes in Handwritten Letter for His 'Mistakes' Ahead of Sentencing" by Spencer S. Hsu on washingtonpost.com

I'd rather see an apology after sentencing, but I'm willing to forgive if people are willing to learn.

Awww. Isn't that sweet. 

Alex Jones apologized too. Though he needs to apologize for a million other things including the 9/11 and Sandy Hook bullshit he peddles.

We apologize to the extent our commentaries could be construed as negative statements about Mr. Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong James Doubek on NPR

Brave Woman Indeed

Here's a weird one.

I can't believe that the science isn't totally settled on this. I always thought that the reason the moon appears larger when it's close to the horizon was because of a magnification effect of the atmosphere. Boy, was I way behind the times. Aristotle thought the same thing, but the moon occupies the same half of an angular degree in the sky regardless of it being on the horizon or straight over your head.

Dec 13, 2016 - "Why the Moon Looks Bigger Near the Horizon" by Nadia Drake on news.nationalgeographic.com

Last night I threw a rotting 2-pound papaya about 50 feet into the woods behind my house.

god bless america:

BBC article on racist incidents at the museum

I'll take a look at Axios-- thanks for the tip. 

I agree there is fake news on the right and the left, but the damage done by Breitbart and InfoWars in recent elections has been appalling. Case in point, Comet Ping Pong. I don't see anything on this scale in the "liberal elite" media.

And then there's this about our Supreme Leader and where he gets his info from. It's disturbing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-02/trump-s-world-increasingly-shaped-by-fox-news-and-fox-by-trump

On 5/29/2017 at 4:04 PM, saf said:

Letterman and slapstick - velcro suit. Alka-seltzer suit. Chris Elliot as a regular contributor. (I love Chris Elliot. I was a big fan of "Get a Life!" That's my Dad's fault though. He is a big Bob and Ray fan.) Throwing stuff off the roof. There was plenty of it.

Top Ten lists, Will It Float?, Is This Anything?, Hello Deli, Stupid Pet Tricks, Larry "Bud" Melman, Letterman's mother, etc. The absurdist comedy of Letterman was fucking genius. 

Here's an insightful interview with a Letterman biographer on NPR.

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/17/524393134/-the-epitome-of-new-york-cool-letterman-biographer-on-late-night-icon

Every time I think my job sucks, I try to be grateful I'm not, in any capacity, a White House staffer. I don't know how they sleep at night.

2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Anything the Dems do he attributes to Hillary losing the election. I'm exhausted by the Fake News claims. I now refer to 45 as our Fake President.

I had a couple of pizzas delivered a couple of nights ago! We order every couple of weeks or so and the quality is usually good. There have been a couple of times where the pizza was undercooked and doughy, so we started ordering "well done", but then they were overcooked. Their salads are usually above average for a pizza joint in terms of quality ingredients, but they don't drain the lettuce enough which makes for a watery salad. YMMV.

Absolutely disgusting. We'll likely hear more and more about this kind of shit as the next 4 to 8 years go by.

20 minutes ago, John William G said:

I miss the Don Rockwell picnics. 

Ah yes, the salad days. And pulled pork days. And way too many delicious baked goods days.