Good afternoon. Yesterday was a good day spent with family friends. I don't have to think about food for at least the next two days. I love leftovers!
The temperatures today are delightful but plummeting in the near future. Our daughter saw something about a possibility of snow coinciding with her 7:00 PM physics final.
And NC State beat Carolina, handily. (I do not follow closely, just the important wins and losses.)
Good Sunday morning. 32 degrees now, it was 35 when I first got up, but winds bring down the chill factor. That was probably the high today, as temps are going to stay just below freezing, with even lower wind chills. Chance of snow later.
At least the Ohio State Buckeyes won The Game yesterday! 😀
I made my deviled eggs last night. I've experimented a bit with the recipe (a little more sweet pickle relish, a little less mayo). I've mixing ingredients before I put in the mayo, and I am seeing I don't need near as much mayo as I've been using. I also have less filling left over after the last egg.
One trick: I hate adding the filling because it doesn't look good. So I ask Katie to do that step, and they look prettier.
Katie is stressed because she made 24 dinner rolls...and the head count is now up to 23 people. 😬 Only 1 extra! I offered to decline my roll, she offered to share it with me....Could she have the top half? She loves the top half of rolls.
We put the noodles in. I'm used to rolling them very thin, so they don't take as long to cook, but a 2+2 egg recipe discourages rolling them that thin.
Our daughter is tired: She got called in to work yesterday, two split shifts (9am-1pm, 5pm-9pm). I let her take my car. There's a hair barrette in there, the radio is turned to a different station, the seat is scrunched forward a foot. The idea of putting things back the way you found them is a foreign concept to her....
ahhh, 2 split shifts - on any other day, definitely putting things back the way you found them, yes, especially don't return w/ the gas tank on empty, but perhaps after 2 split shifts (is that a common occurrence??) maybe the hair barrette is ok, as is the different radio station... but the seat position, nah, put it back the way ya found it.
Muffin tops vs dinner roll tops - what a dilemma. I love the muffin tops, for sure. Unless referring to those puffing out over the tops of jeans. Dinner rolls, either way - WITHOUT BUTTER, please, so yummy, without the butter.
I believe my deviled eggs take very little mayo (depends on measuring, I guess, which I never do), & heavier w/ the relish & mustard, either brown or yellow, all depends. But if I'm adding crab, no relish, but Old Bay Seasoning. I used to use the cookie decorating tips to squirt the mixture into the eggs, but now just cut off a corner of a baggy, scoop the egg mix into it down into the bottom cut off corner & squeeze it in, swirling a bit.
Placido Domingo, everyone. Our weathers seem not too cold the next few days. Rain is in the forecast for next weekend, but I don't make any plans based on guesses that far away.
A bit of "news" on the weather website begins, "As if we haven't seen enough wintry weather already ...," so obviously weather.com is 100% supportive of Global Warming now. One cold snap per late fall is all the "wintry weather" the world can take.
But the cold wintry snap is proof that the weather is changing, and it is a catastrophe....although, since changing weather is a big reason people tune into weather forecasts, they appear to be saying they want their audience to shrink...🤦♂️
I have asked for a youth to go "up the attic" to get mine out. It's just a glass circle with places for candles. Our church in San Antonio sold them as a fundraiser, many years ago. I remembered to get my candles a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes I forget until the last minute.
Good that you got those candles ahead of time so that no adverse winter weather advents would interfere with your having them at hand when it comes time to light them, eh?
Our previous wreath has been lost in the shuffle of moves. We don't know where to get one locally, so we are looking at Amazon. Seems a bit sacrilegious.
All I have left to do are the deviled eggs for tomorrow, plus a quick road trip to the Uranus Fudge Factory (buying two slices for Janet).
There's a big debate among noodlers about which is better: using the whole egg (other than the shells), or just the egg yolks. I compromised. I made my batches yesterday and today with 2+2 (two whole eggs, two egg yolks).
The egg yolks IMHO make a better tasting noodle, but you have to flour it more. They are more sticky. They don't roll as thin (they stick to the surface if you roll them too thin. So they are a bit frustrating to make.
We have the same # for tomorrow as we had Thursday, but Thursday had several kids, who don't eat as much. I did 6 eggs worth for Thursday, amping it up to 8 for tomorrow.
Katie says we have three pies coming so don't make a sugar cream pie. 😢
Watching 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 with my youngest son was fun. We joked about, we debated calls, he made fun of their kicker again. He's unsure why his former soccer teammate chose to kick for Boston College over The Ohio State University. But we'll root for BC while he's there (he'll be a freshman there next year). I plan to write in my Christmas newsletter the story of what he did after last year's game; he went to the HS and kicked field goals!
My daughter got called in twice today, for two four hour shifts: 9-1, and 5-9. I let her borrow my car .
Katie watched a little bit with us. While she made rolls, She invited me to watch. I told her our youngest would feel lonely so I had better stay; could we live stream it? 𝕿𝖍𝖜𝖔𝖈𝖐! 🙄 So during the next commercial break I facetimed her; she grinned at that...
The funniest bit was that it began to snow, lightly covering the field. Brutus Buckeye then scraped a giant X through the M in the Michigan end zone. He then traced 𝒪𝒽𝒾ℴ in the snow. The field crew came on to scrub his handiwork. Was it disrespectful? Only mildly so. But the OSU coach refused to let his team plant a Buckeye flag in the Xichigan logo, telling a sideline reporter "we want to win with humility". A classy move.
Finally, Our youngest brought home is 7' tall skeleton (plastic; he didn't dig up Bill Walton). Our daughter got snippy with him, so I jokingly told him he'd catch hell for it, but it would be funny if he slid it into her bed....He told Katie, 𝕿𝖍𝖜𝖔𝖈𝖐! 🙄, but he did tell her it was my idea and he refused...
Too bad more coaches in all sports don't take that attitude and try to pass in on to their players, at least those at the college level. Too late by the time they get to the pros, I'd suspect.
Don't see any of those coaches these days ever passing along Vince Lombardi's advice (also attributed to a couple of other pro football coaches, but Lombardi was most likely the originator) to his kick returner Travis Williams, who danced around after scoring a touchdown in a game back in '67:
"Travis, the next time you make it to the end zone, act like you've been there before."
The biggest single reason that I no longer follow any sports other than horse racing is the absolute lack of humility and all the over-the-top hype, trash talk and faux machismo (actual, *real* masculinity need not - and does not - brag about itself) that inundates the whole enterprise, be it pro or supposedly amateur, the lines between which become ever more blurred with each passing season.
Don't get me wrong. Nothing wrong with celebrating in and of itself, and it would be absolutely unreasonable to expect accomplished athletes to act like church mice. But they need not become howling hyenas about every success, be it small or large, either.
I know it is trolling, but there is clever trolling mean trolling, and lame trolling.
A light snow fell during The Game. The OSU mascot used his feet to stamp an X across the M in the Michigan end zone. He also wrote Ohio next to it in script, using his feet. Once the UM folks realized what he did they rushed onto the field to erase it. It was clever trolling. I actually don't mind that, even if my team is on the receiving end.
But Ryan Day wanted to end the escalation of anger between the two schools, so he forbid the team from planting a flag on their logo (which I think is low class trolling). I liked the idea of "winning with humility". He could have had his team go for a final score, but instead chose to run out the clock, which shows class.
I found a full, realistic skeleton kit for my oldest to put together when he was in middle school. It was made of a strong paper of some sort, then used brads to put the pieces that were supposed to move. I have a picture of son & completed sketeton (taller than son) sitting on couch together. Son gave skeleton to his biology teacher.
I don't have a full size plastic skeleton, but I do have a small cat skeleton that says "meow," from the store where I used to work. They carry many kinds of skeletons for Halloween, but the one that always had me going "you're kidding" was the spider skeletons. Arachnids do not have bones! At least one co-worker was familiar with that concept, but probably not most of them. So it was a conceptual contradiction even though most people wouldn't even realize it. But one could hardly critique it as inaccurate, as there is no standard in nature for configuration of a supposed endoskeleton for an invertebrate. Who's to say they got it wrong?
I had a large motion detector spider that was attached to the corner of the house because a woodpecker was liking the house & peck peck pecking. Woody was not after bugs, but wanting to make a nest. Thing about that spider was it didn't care what motion set it off. ie: workmen would come around the corner & give a scare - 😱
Middle son got rid of Woody w/ a bb gun - it was son's first attempt at Woody while he was flying away. Probably - well, not probably - was - against the law shooting in suburbia like that, so we were luckier than Woody
I have put my 50-degree sleeping bag inside my 30-degree sleeping bag. I could have done the opposite, but the 50-degree one is narrower. I hope I'll be warm enough tonight.
I know, right? It is not, actually, 30 degrees in my house, not even upstairs in the northeast room. It's probably more like 58. I could find out by getting out my camping alarm clock, which includes a thermometer.
Is the power out or the heater just won't quite keep up? We are headed towards lows just over 10 the next few days, but home stays reasonably insulated. Bizarrely the worst I endured was 4 days in Austin in the 2021(?) ice storm without power. Finally caved and walked a mile to a friends house that had power.
during that period our heat/air went out. Repairman came out, told us we needed a new unit (it was old, we expected that news), he called it in; put the call on hold & said to us "Please don't be offended by what you're going to hear". Then when he got back on to place the order he said he was w/ an elderly couple who really needed the heat. Lots of talk. Got it ordered. After the order was finalized he told us the size unit we needed was in short supply so he needed to speed things up for us.
Over on the mothership, the cheesiest clickbait ads have somehow invaded the comments sections. I knew it had to be a glitch or a hack, perhaps something to do with Disgus. But Steve is on the case, posting in the comments "They're awful. It's a mistake. They're coming down and won't be repeated." Whew.
The conclusion I would expect is "keep an eye out for Disgus glitches and let them know we're watching, because our paying customers will certainly notice and interpret them as willful abuse or at least uncaring negligence on our part."
If they're paying Disgus on an ongoing basis, not all the costs are sunk. They must have a contract and the contract must say something like "no cheesy clickbait sent to our paying customers, or else." I'm hoping Steve has frankly communicated to Disgus about that, now that he has seen firsthand how it makes The Dispatch look.
Well, we have 𝙏𝒉𝙚 𝙂𝒂𝙢𝒆 up on the television. I just ordered a family pack meal, I'll go pick it up before kickoff.
40 wings, tater tots, french fries, and Katie offered to make more stuff. She is undecided how many more noodles I should make. At least two more eggs worth, but probably 4.
I've seen some halftime videos of their band; they are very creative, very talented. I snagged a screen shot of the one where a bear appears to be pooping out the Xichigan flag; I sent it to Christy's dad in a letter.
I hung a bird feeder on my window sill (2nd floor) last summer. I have half a dozen birds fighting for food in it. I will refill it this afternoon for them. They are fun to watch. Noisy. It sounds like teenage mutant termites chewing...
In Michigan, I'd go through a 50 lb. bag of oil sunflower seed every month. When I moved to the city, I tried having a bird feeder and it worked for a while. Then one day, I woke up, walked outside, and there must have been about 3 million starlings caterwauling and fighting and overwhelming the entire backyard including neighbors on both sides...then the rats show up and it all went to Hell. I miss my bird feeders. Watching birds up close is almost like going to church.
it's advised not to have bird feeders because of the dropped seeds attracting the mice attracting the rattlesnakes... however, we have a webcam attached to a tree, set to night vision, pointed at the back of our house. We film lots of wildlife. Most of which I love, especially the ringtails. We have had a family of skunks, which are good 'cause they keep the rattlers away. Love the fox. Deer are very common. We have raccoons which I don't like, as well as armadillos, but haven't seen an armadillo in awhile. What's very funny is we have landscaping edging, about 3" wide between the little bit of grassy area in the back & the bushes by the house. The deer of course are on the grass, but everything else walks on the edging EXCEPT the armadillo.
Oh, there are plenty of bird feeders around. The same “advice” for small garden ponds. Friends have one & a fox visits regularly to drink
I forgot to mention the coyote we have ‘captured’ in our cam.
We have plenty of other snakes which are good - I find their shedded skins regularly. The worst thing about the rattlers are the babies cause they hide in the rocks or close to doors & keep biting
We had a good squirrel-baffler feeder for years. Then the feral cats invaded the neighborhood. It turned into a “bird feeder” of a different sort altogether…
we had the most beautiful black feral cat that lived in back of us for many years. S/he kept herself/himself well fed. We named her/him T - beautiful Tina Turner, plus we live on the golf course on the tee box - not at all implying there are only male golfers, but wanting T to go w/ s/he.
I'm letting my youngest sleep in this morning. He actually did studying yesterday for a few hours. Even though it is a break from school, he keeps up on schoolwork. He did tell me he's annoyed at his Genetics prof who made this week's homework due Sunday evening, rather than the usual Monday evening. He's annoyed.
When he wakes up we plan to send him into Richmond to pick up an order from Buffalo Wild Wings (aka "B Dubs"). We've gone to B Dubs to watch the game the past two years; he told me we need to change our luck... But he loves B Dubs, so if they lose today, next year we'll eat something else! 🤦♂️
My noodles look good, but I need to make another batch. I modified my recipe: two cups of flour, some salt, milk, and two whole eggs, + two egg yolks. The yolks make the dough much stickier, so I cannot roll it as then as I like. But they seem to taste (IMHO) a little better.
I'm trying to decide if I should dismay Katie, or alarm her, but I am thinking of making a sugar cream pie for the gathering tomorrow. She'll remind me Pam's baby sister plans to bring five deserts, so we'll have more than enough. But still, I'm thinking about it. I'll make deviled eggs tonight; 14-- 12 to serve and 2 to take home for Bob and Janet.
I'm listening to the Ruminant as I clean the stove and adjacent kitchen spaces; I'm so glad I didn't do that before the Bro Cooking Adventures of Wednesday and Thursday ... "Thor, you're planning to FRY?!? Nobody told me!" "You went to bed at 7:45." "Oh, right."
Anyway, Jonah said, not for the first time, that he thinks the rising popularity of Jew-hatred illustrates that, "There are few taboos left," so young strivers who want to monetize attention turn to anti-Jewish expressions because that gets attention.
I disagree. There are plenty of taboos. In the U.S., perhaps the biggest one is any negative observations about Black people. Young strivers, such as the New York Young Republicans whose texts were published, are pushing on that one, too, but it's not yielding at this point. Expressions of Jew-hatred, however, meet widespread (though not universal) popular acclaim.
As I see it, the general taboo is against negativity toward Official Victim Groups, and the designation of Official Victim Groups occurs almost without reference to actual reality. Thus, Muslims are an Official Victim Group, even though (just as one actual reality) 23 countries have Islam as their official state religion, and that's not in the manner in which the Church of England is an established state religion.
RE: "...so young strivers who want to *monetize attention* turn to anti-Jewish expressions because that gets attention."
Not just *young* and, of course, not just anti-Jewish. There's plenty of hate to go around for the sake of "monetization", be it for attention or cash or, in many instances, both. Since in the attention economy, both amount to the same thing as often as not...
But the monetization of hate and the suspicion, rejection and blanket vilification of the "other" is the very point of existing for so many people like these, all day, every day, forget the monetary aspects. They make my blood boil, especially when they show up from out of state looking to make a political prop out of - and indeed, a buck off of - the wholesale "othering" of a community squarely in my neck of the woods.
But of course, boiling blood is pretty much the point with any of these or the countless other despicable click-baiting trolls and ne're-do-wells along with the other assorted wastes of space who engage in these sorts of things, regardless of who their targets are.
What a pitiful, pathetic way to live their lives, their very raison d'etre having become the hating and belittlement of other people, which in and of itself is more than bad enough. But to intentionally practice and spread this kind of malodourous excrement to *profit* from it?!
I can't help but hope that it's an exceptionally warm day when their real lord and master welcomes them all to their eternal home.
And yet the Jewish people, whose victimhood status is unsurpassed in world history, is not an "Official Victim Group" and are in fact labeled as "oppressors" and "settlers". Go figure.
the K-12 school my kids went to was liberal. Back in those days it was liberal; these days very far left I would say. Today I would carefully consider other choices, even tho back then the education they received was superior, perhaps by now other private schools are doing the same... even back then the instructors tried 'indoctrinating'. My kids 'saw it'; didn't like it, & I'm glad they were able to talk about it.
anyway, I'm Christian (Jewish dad, Christian mom) was very active in volunteering thru-out, & the last 2 ys I was the parent association president. We had never had a secretary before, needed one, but altho some opposed it, I was able to get the vote approved & hired the spouse of a gay couple, who had 2 young children in the school. I only provide this info as a backup to show how this woman trusted me. She came to me one time to say other kids in her kids' classes were telling her kids they were going to hell because they were Jews. I suggested she discuss this w/ the teacher &/or the head of the lower school. At this liberal school she didn't believe that anything would happen. late '80s-90's.
This exemplifies my general dis-ease with the daily commentariat. Reinventing oneself every day can only result in someone eventually saying something stupid like "There are no taboos left". Of course there are taboos, with the one's you pointed out being Exhibit A for the prosecution.
It's the same with Noah. I thought he was brilliant for the first several dozens of columns. Now, he's run out of gas about 4/5ths of the time, and one can sense he's unsuccessfully grasping for topics to maintain daily momentum.
George Will writes 2 columns a week. That's about right. He can take the time to reflect on a topic. When was the last time you heard George say something stupid? For me, never.
If Turchen's theory on the overproduction of elites is correct (it is), then I place the Substack-ification of world geopolitical analysis now in the hands of a few million wannabe Bari Weiss's as proof that it's true.
This makes me sound like a doofus, but with op ed journalism, shallow is fine for me. The current set of youngsters trying to nail down hard reality ("there are no taboos left") and adopting the seasoned mein of great thinkers while mouthing supercilious nose picker platitudes leaves me just wanting some reasonable and decent person writing a decent column in their own voice. Straw boogeyman...you'd have to cite examples, but frankly, I don't care. I like George.
2nd reply - George Will - great stuff, for a long time. In fact, I subscribe to WaPo just to read his column. They keep trying to raise my rates so I keep saying 'bye' so they go back to the less expensive rate... anyway, I detest WaPo commenters... ugh! So very hateful. I suggest never read any comments about a George Will post.
This makes me think of the trilogy of the three Californias, Kim Stanley Robinson's utopian trilogy, published in the 1980's. I don't remember which one, but to become a well-known author, it was via similar to online these days, not by writing books, & back when these books were published, online writing was pretty much non-existent, or at best in its infancy. I love scifi - so forward thinking, imaginative...
In real life conversation, if a person said, "There are so few taboos left that people who want to shock have to be all Kill the Jews," another person could immediately raise the obvious counter-argument, hopefully causing the first person to say, "Oh, right," and then the Southern Hostess could say, "More pie, boys? I can open another bottle of wine."
Having a venue from which to Pundit with no real-time feedback -- "That's dumb, Mom. Maybe you should go to bed after you give us more pie: you've been up since 4:30." -- can cause a person's argumentation skills to deteriorate. One almost never sees the holes in one's own reasoning. That's why we need other people to keep us from being dumb.
The late Norm McDonald had a joke where he said (and I am not quoting); 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒇 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒔 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒃𝒐𝒎𝒃, 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 50 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒔: 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒂𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆?
Sadly, it seems many commenters elsewhere didn't realize it was a joke. Yes, we shouldn't round up and arrest all Afghans, but yeah, I understand the general wariness some might have as a result of the terrorist who murdered a National Guard soldier.
Suppose Phil's beloved Bucks blow out TUUN this afternoon. Suppose some crazed Xichigan fan then shoots up Buckeye fans in Ann Arbor. It would be a horrific tragedy. But I guarantee their fans will condemn the shooting and the shooter, and people in the state of Ohio aren't going to retaliate against TUUN fans.
Many years ago, I read an account about him wherein he ran afoul of some exec at NBC who then made it his personal vendetta campaign to destroy him. Got him fired from SNL, then literally "followed him" and destroyed every other venture he tried in media and entertainment.
And just when was the last time that either Harvard or Yale won a national championship? Those schools actually got the NCAA to create a subdivision of Division I (formerly called Division !-AA, now called FCS) just so they didn't have to play teams like Ohio State that could beat their a$$!
Yeah, the flawed, corrupt rating system for the playoffs that kept FSU out when they lost their QB. Or the one that has so-called student athletes driving around in Bentleys from all the lucre schools throw at them. I would say that using THE GAME for the OSU-UM tilt is cultural appropriation. Yale-Harvard is the OG. And the Ivies kept their schools out of the FCS playoffs until this year because their players have to....oh, I don't know...study and attend class. I was amazed that the Ivy League actually relented and is allowing their teams to enter the FCS playoffs this year. Harvard and Yale are both in.
I lived my early years in CT, near New Haven, and have fantastic memories of attending a few Yale games. But I don’t think I ever saw the Harvard game.
Its really quite fun. Much better at the Yale Bowl than the mausoleum that Harvard has. More open. Better tailgating. Sadly, my senior year it was at Harvard, and although the class rented a train to transport us, it was a glum ride back in that we lost. Sad, drunken college students are the worst.
Good afternoon. Yesterday was a good day spent with family friends. I don't have to think about food for at least the next two days. I love leftovers!
The temperatures today are delightful but plummeting in the near future. Our daughter saw something about a possibility of snow coinciding with her 7:00 PM physics final.
And NC State beat Carolina, handily. (I do not follow closely, just the important wins and losses.)
Leftovers are the best!!
Good Sunday morning. 32 degrees now, it was 35 when I first got up, but winds bring down the chill factor. That was probably the high today, as temps are going to stay just below freezing, with even lower wind chills. Chance of snow later.
At least the Ohio State Buckeyes won The Game yesterday! 😀
And NC State whomped Carolina 42 -19!
I made my deviled eggs last night. I've experimented a bit with the recipe (a little more sweet pickle relish, a little less mayo). I've mixing ingredients before I put in the mayo, and I am seeing I don't need near as much mayo as I've been using. I also have less filling left over after the last egg.
One trick: I hate adding the filling because it doesn't look good. So I ask Katie to do that step, and they look prettier.
Katie is stressed because she made 24 dinner rolls...and the head count is now up to 23 people. 😬 Only 1 extra! I offered to decline my roll, she offered to share it with me....Could she have the top half? She loves the top half of rolls.
We put the noodles in. I'm used to rolling them very thin, so they don't take as long to cook, but a 2+2 egg recipe discourages rolling them that thin.
Our daughter is tired: She got called in to work yesterday, two split shifts (9am-1pm, 5pm-9pm). I let her take my car. There's a hair barrette in there, the radio is turned to a different station, the seat is scrunched forward a foot. The idea of putting things back the way you found them is a foreign concept to her....
ahhh, 2 split shifts - on any other day, definitely putting things back the way you found them, yes, especially don't return w/ the gas tank on empty, but perhaps after 2 split shifts (is that a common occurrence??) maybe the hair barrette is ok, as is the different radio station... but the seat position, nah, put it back the way ya found it.
Muffin tops vs dinner roll tops - what a dilemma. I love the muffin tops, for sure. Unless referring to those puffing out over the tops of jeans. Dinner rolls, either way - WITHOUT BUTTER, please, so yummy, without the butter.
I believe my deviled eggs take very little mayo (depends on measuring, I guess, which I never do), & heavier w/ the relish & mustard, either brown or yellow, all depends. But if I'm adding crab, no relish, but Old Bay Seasoning. I used to use the cookie decorating tips to squirt the mixture into the eggs, but now just cut off a corner of a baggy, scoop the egg mix into it down into the bottom cut off corner & squeeze it in, swirling a bit.
Placido Domingo, everyone. Our weathers seem not too cold the next few days. Rain is in the forecast for next weekend, but I don't make any plans based on guesses that far away.
A bit of "news" on the weather website begins, "As if we haven't seen enough wintry weather already ...," so obviously weather.com is 100% supportive of Global Warming now. One cold snap per late fall is all the "wintry weather" the world can take.
But the cold wintry snap is proof that the weather is changing, and it is a catastrophe....although, since changing weather is a big reason people tune into weather forecasts, they appear to be saying they want their audience to shrink...🤦♂️
Weather should never change. It should be exactly the same every day. Said no one ever.
We haven't had an advent wreath for some years. I'm thinking this year we should.
I have asked for a youth to go "up the attic" to get mine out. It's just a glass circle with places for candles. Our church in San Antonio sold them as a fundraiser, many years ago. I remembered to get my candles a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes I forget until the last minute.
Good that you got those candles ahead of time so that no adverse winter weather advents would interfere with your having them at hand when it comes time to light them, eh?
Our previous wreath has been lost in the shuffle of moves. We don't know where to get one locally, so we are looking at Amazon. Seems a bit sacrilegious.
A Christian book/gift store would be a possibility. Also a Latino grocery store: they often have religious articles. Hobby Lobby.
However, since today is the first day of Advent, local retailers might be out.
All I have left to do are the deviled eggs for tomorrow, plus a quick road trip to the Uranus Fudge Factory (buying two slices for Janet).
There's a big debate among noodlers about which is better: using the whole egg (other than the shells), or just the egg yolks. I compromised. I made my batches yesterday and today with 2+2 (two whole eggs, two egg yolks).
The egg yolks IMHO make a better tasting noodle, but you have to flour it more. They are more sticky. They don't roll as thin (they stick to the surface if you roll them too thin. So they are a bit frustrating to make.
We have the same # for tomorrow as we had Thursday, but Thursday had several kids, who don't eat as much. I did 6 eggs worth for Thursday, amping it up to 8 for tomorrow.
Katie says we have three pies coming so don't make a sugar cream pie. 😢
Watching 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 with my youngest son was fun. We joked about, we debated calls, he made fun of their kicker again. He's unsure why his former soccer teammate chose to kick for Boston College over The Ohio State University. But we'll root for BC while he's there (he'll be a freshman there next year). I plan to write in my Christmas newsletter the story of what he did after last year's game; he went to the HS and kicked field goals!
My daughter got called in twice today, for two four hour shifts: 9-1, and 5-9. I let her borrow my car .
Katie watched a little bit with us. While she made rolls, She invited me to watch. I told her our youngest would feel lonely so I had better stay; could we live stream it? 𝕿𝖍𝖜𝖔𝖈𝖐! 🙄 So during the next commercial break I facetimed her; she grinned at that...
The funniest bit was that it began to snow, lightly covering the field. Brutus Buckeye then scraped a giant X through the M in the Michigan end zone. He then traced 𝒪𝒽𝒾ℴ in the snow. The field crew came on to scrub his handiwork. Was it disrespectful? Only mildly so. But the OSU coach refused to let his team plant a Buckeye flag in the Xichigan logo, telling a sideline reporter "we want to win with humility". A classy move.
Finally, Our youngest brought home is 7' tall skeleton (plastic; he didn't dig up Bill Walton). Our daughter got snippy with him, so I jokingly told him he'd catch hell for it, but it would be funny if he slid it into her bed....He told Katie, 𝕿𝖍𝖜𝖔𝖈𝖐! 🙄, but he did tell her it was my idea and he refused...
RE: "we want to win with humility"
Too bad more coaches in all sports don't take that attitude and try to pass in on to their players, at least those at the college level. Too late by the time they get to the pros, I'd suspect.
Don't see any of those coaches these days ever passing along Vince Lombardi's advice (also attributed to a couple of other pro football coaches, but Lombardi was most likely the originator) to his kick returner Travis Williams, who danced around after scoring a touchdown in a game back in '67:
"Travis, the next time you make it to the end zone, act like you've been there before."
The biggest single reason that I no longer follow any sports other than horse racing is the absolute lack of humility and all the over-the-top hype, trash talk and faux machismo (actual, *real* masculinity need not - and does not - brag about itself) that inundates the whole enterprise, be it pro or supposedly amateur, the lines between which become ever more blurred with each passing season.
Don't get me wrong. Nothing wrong with celebrating in and of itself, and it would be absolutely unreasonable to expect accomplished athletes to act like church mice. But they need not become howling hyenas about every success, be it small or large, either.
I know it is trolling, but there is clever trolling mean trolling, and lame trolling.
A light snow fell during The Game. The OSU mascot used his feet to stamp an X across the M in the Michigan end zone. He also wrote Ohio next to it in script, using his feet. Once the UM folks realized what he did they rushed onto the field to erase it. It was clever trolling. I actually don't mind that, even if my team is on the receiving end.
But Ryan Day wanted to end the escalation of anger between the two schools, so he forbid the team from planting a flag on their logo (which I think is low class trolling). I liked the idea of "winning with humility". He could have had his team go for a final score, but instead chose to run out the clock, which shows class.
sounds like a lovely day!
I found a full, realistic skeleton kit for my oldest to put together when he was in middle school. It was made of a strong paper of some sort, then used brads to put the pieces that were supposed to move. I have a picture of son & completed sketeton (taller than son) sitting on couch together. Son gave skeleton to his biology teacher.
I don't have a full size plastic skeleton, but I do have a small cat skeleton that says "meow," from the store where I used to work. They carry many kinds of skeletons for Halloween, but the one that always had me going "you're kidding" was the spider skeletons. Arachnids do not have bones! At least one co-worker was familiar with that concept, but probably not most of them. So it was a conceptual contradiction even though most people wouldn't even realize it. But one could hardly critique it as inaccurate, as there is no standard in nature for configuration of a supposed endoskeleton for an invertebrate. Who's to say they got it wrong?
This spring I'll share a post about Pam and an alarm clock that says meow....I'm timing it for her birthday.
I had a large motion detector spider that was attached to the corner of the house because a woodpecker was liking the house & peck peck pecking. Woody was not after bugs, but wanting to make a nest. Thing about that spider was it didn't care what motion set it off. ie: workmen would come around the corner & give a scare - 😱
Middle son got rid of Woody w/ a bb gun - it was son's first attempt at Woody while he was flying away. Probably - well, not probably - was - against the law shooting in suburbia like that, so we were luckier than Woody
I have put my 50-degree sleeping bag inside my 30-degree sleeping bag. I could have done the opposite, but the 50-degree one is narrower. I hope I'll be warm enough tonight.
Aaarrrgghhh!!!
Well said.
I know, right? It is not, actually, 30 degrees in my house, not even upstairs in the northeast room. It's probably more like 58. I could find out by getting out my camping alarm clock, which includes a thermometer.
Is the power out or the heater just won't quite keep up? We are headed towards lows just over 10 the next few days, but home stays reasonably insulated. Bizarrely the worst I endured was 4 days in Austin in the 2021(?) ice storm without power. Finally caved and walked a mile to a friends house that had power.
during that period our heat/air went out. Repairman came out, told us we needed a new unit (it was old, we expected that news), he called it in; put the call on hold & said to us "Please don't be offended by what you're going to hear". Then when he got back on to place the order he said he was w/ an elderly couple who really needed the heat. Lots of talk. Got it ordered. After the order was finalized he told us the size unit we needed was in short supply so he needed to speed things up for us.
It's just cold in the house. The thermostat is downstairs in the warmest area, and the bedrooms get really cold.
how was it last night? Was it difficult getting out of those nice warm snuggly sleeping bagS?
Better. My feet were warm all night!
𝓑𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓚𝓘𝓝𝓖 𝓝𝓔𝓦𝓢!
𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕺𝖍𝖎𝖔 𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖊 𝖀𝖓𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖞 27😀
𝓣𝒰𝓤𝒩 9 😢
Is this good news or bad news?
It depends how close you live to Phil H (Ohio State won).
The choice of fonts suggests good news.
Interesting especially from this photographer’s perspective: https://www.foxsports.com/watch/fmc-1zp47zyrt3z6qvfm
I just watched this, Sunday am - wonderful. Thanks.
A beautiful story.
Over on the mothership, the cheesiest clickbait ads have somehow invaded the comments sections. I knew it had to be a glitch or a hack, perhaps something to do with Disgus. But Steve is on the case, posting in the comments "They're awful. It's a mistake. They're coming down and won't be repeated." Whew.
Good for Steve. Bad for using Disgus to start with, though.
Agree. Presumably he and his fellow suits will be able to draw that conclusion from this experience.
It would surprise me if they draw that conclusion. They have sunk costs.
The conclusion I would expect is "keep an eye out for Disgus glitches and let them know we're watching, because our paying customers will certainly notice and interpret them as willful abuse or at least uncaring negligence on our part."
If they're paying Disgus on an ongoing basis, not all the costs are sunk. They must have a contract and the contract must say something like "no cheesy clickbait sent to our paying customers, or else." I'm hoping Steve has frankly communicated to Disgus about that, now that he has seen firsthand how it makes The Dispatch look.
I hope you're right. I wish nothing but success to The Dispatch.
The auxiliary heat is just heat strips in the heat pump. They kick in when the heat pump alone can't keep up.
When I hear the unit running I see the numbers on the electric meter spinning round and round.
We had that in one rental house during a very cold winter.
Well, we have 𝙏𝒉𝙚 𝙂𝒂𝙢𝒆 up on the television. I just ordered a family pack meal, I'll go pick it up before kickoff.
40 wings, tater tots, french fries, and Katie offered to make more stuff. She is undecided how many more noodles I should make. At least two more eggs worth, but probably 4.
Congratulations on The Game. With all sincerity... sort of.
For Jay -- a rendition by The Ohio State Marching Band of "I wanna Go Back to Ohio State".
BTW, the OSU Marching Band is known as TBDBITL "The Best Da## Band in the Land".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBiY48bRO-I
I've seen some halftime videos of their band; they are very creative, very talented. I snagged a screen shot of the one where a bear appears to be pooping out the Xichigan flag; I sent it to Christy's dad in a letter.
I hung a bird feeder on my window sill (2nd floor) last summer. I have half a dozen birds fighting for food in it. I will refill it this afternoon for them. They are fun to watch. Noisy. It sounds like teenage mutant termites chewing...
In Michigan, I'd go through a 50 lb. bag of oil sunflower seed every month. When I moved to the city, I tried having a bird feeder and it worked for a while. Then one day, I woke up, walked outside, and there must have been about 3 million starlings caterwauling and fighting and overwhelming the entire backyard including neighbors on both sides...then the rats show up and it all went to Hell. I miss my bird feeders. Watching birds up close is almost like going to church.
it's advised not to have bird feeders because of the dropped seeds attracting the mice attracting the rattlesnakes... however, we have a webcam attached to a tree, set to night vision, pointed at the back of our house. We film lots of wildlife. Most of which I love, especially the ringtails. We have had a family of skunks, which are good 'cause they keep the rattlers away. Love the fox. Deer are very common. We have raccoons which I don't like, as well as armadillos, but haven't seen an armadillo in awhile. What's very funny is we have landscaping edging, about 3" wide between the little bit of grassy area in the back & the bushes by the house. The deer of course are on the grass, but everything else walks on the edging EXCEPT the armadillo.
Being "advised" is such an annoying thing. Telling me I can't have bird feeders is up there with ban on plastic straws.
We are told to avoid them because of the bears.
Oh, there are plenty of bird feeders around. The same “advice” for small garden ponds. Friends have one & a fox visits regularly to drink
I forgot to mention the coyote we have ‘captured’ in our cam.
We have plenty of other snakes which are good - I find their shedded skins regularly. The worst thing about the rattlers are the babies cause they hide in the rocks or close to doors & keep biting
We have plenty of coyote behind our house. When they howl, the dogs don't look happy, as it is more of a scream than a bark....
We had a good squirrel-baffler feeder for years. Then the feral cats invaded the neighborhood. It turned into a “bird feeder” of a different sort altogether…
we had the most beautiful black feral cat that lived in back of us for many years. S/he kept herself/himself well fed. We named her/him T - beautiful Tina Turner, plus we live on the golf course on the tee box - not at all implying there are only male golfers, but wanting T to go w/ s/he.
We had a cat around the neighborhood for a while called "Bird-snatcher Cat", because he could jump up and grab a bird right off the feeder.
We are "advised" to avoid them because birds can spread disease to one another at feeders.
Dangit.
And yet, we still have them, and the birds seem to pretty much survive.
I'm letting my youngest sleep in this morning. He actually did studying yesterday for a few hours. Even though it is a break from school, he keeps up on schoolwork. He did tell me he's annoyed at his Genetics prof who made this week's homework due Sunday evening, rather than the usual Monday evening. He's annoyed.
When he wakes up we plan to send him into Richmond to pick up an order from Buffalo Wild Wings (aka "B Dubs"). We've gone to B Dubs to watch the game the past two years; he told me we need to change our luck... But he loves B Dubs, so if they lose today, next year we'll eat something else! 🤦♂️
My noodles look good, but I need to make another batch. I modified my recipe: two cups of flour, some salt, milk, and two whole eggs, + two egg yolks. The yolks make the dough much stickier, so I cannot roll it as then as I like. But they seem to taste (IMHO) a little better.
I'm trying to decide if I should dismay Katie, or alarm her, but I am thinking of making a sugar cream pie for the gathering tomorrow. She'll remind me Pam's baby sister plans to bring five deserts, so we'll have more than enough. But still, I'm thinking about it. I'll make deviled eggs tonight; 14-- 12 to serve and 2 to take home for Bob and Janet.
I looked up sugar cream pie. I used to make a chocolate pudding pie, Back in the Day.
I've done that too!
I'm listening to the Ruminant as I clean the stove and adjacent kitchen spaces; I'm so glad I didn't do that before the Bro Cooking Adventures of Wednesday and Thursday ... "Thor, you're planning to FRY?!? Nobody told me!" "You went to bed at 7:45." "Oh, right."
Anyway, Jonah said, not for the first time, that he thinks the rising popularity of Jew-hatred illustrates that, "There are few taboos left," so young strivers who want to monetize attention turn to anti-Jewish expressions because that gets attention.
I disagree. There are plenty of taboos. In the U.S., perhaps the biggest one is any negative observations about Black people. Young strivers, such as the New York Young Republicans whose texts were published, are pushing on that one, too, but it's not yielding at this point. Expressions of Jew-hatred, however, meet widespread (though not universal) popular acclaim.
As I see it, the general taboo is against negativity toward Official Victim Groups, and the designation of Official Victim Groups occurs almost without reference to actual reality. Thus, Muslims are an Official Victim Group, even though (just as one actual reality) 23 countries have Islam as their official state religion, and that's not in the manner in which the Church of England is an established state religion.
RE: "...so young strivers who want to *monetize attention* turn to anti-Jewish expressions because that gets attention."
Not just *young* and, of course, not just anti-Jewish. There's plenty of hate to go around for the sake of "monetization", be it for attention or cash or, in many instances, both. Since in the attention economy, both amount to the same thing as often as not...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/26/rightwing-influencers-michigan-anti-muslim-clickbait?utm_source=RNS+Updates&utm_campaign=0321020de8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_11_27_10_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5356cb657-0321020de8-128520834
But the monetization of hate and the suspicion, rejection and blanket vilification of the "other" is the very point of existing for so many people like these, all day, every day, forget the monetary aspects. They make my blood boil, especially when they show up from out of state looking to make a political prop out of - and indeed, a buck off of - the wholesale "othering" of a community squarely in my neck of the woods.
But of course, boiling blood is pretty much the point with any of these or the countless other despicable click-baiting trolls and ne're-do-wells along with the other assorted wastes of space who engage in these sorts of things, regardless of who their targets are.
What a pitiful, pathetic way to live their lives, their very raison d'etre having become the hating and belittlement of other people, which in and of itself is more than bad enough. But to intentionally practice and spread this kind of malodourous excrement to *profit* from it?!
I can't help but hope that it's an exceptionally warm day when their real lord and master welcomes them all to their eternal home.
And yet the Jewish people, whose victimhood status is unsurpassed in world history, is not an "Official Victim Group" and are in fact labeled as "oppressors" and "settlers". Go figure.
the K-12 school my kids went to was liberal. Back in those days it was liberal; these days very far left I would say. Today I would carefully consider other choices, even tho back then the education they received was superior, perhaps by now other private schools are doing the same... even back then the instructors tried 'indoctrinating'. My kids 'saw it'; didn't like it, & I'm glad they were able to talk about it.
anyway, I'm Christian (Jewish dad, Christian mom) was very active in volunteering thru-out, & the last 2 ys I was the parent association president. We had never had a secretary before, needed one, but altho some opposed it, I was able to get the vote approved & hired the spouse of a gay couple, who had 2 young children in the school. I only provide this info as a backup to show how this woman trusted me. She came to me one time to say other kids in her kids' classes were telling her kids they were going to hell because they were Jews. I suggested she discuss this w/ the teacher &/or the head of the lower school. At this liberal school she didn't believe that anything would happen. late '80s-90's.
And those who attack Jews are identified as Official Victims of the Jews.
They win wars.
They don't act like victims. They fight back.
This exemplifies my general dis-ease with the daily commentariat. Reinventing oneself every day can only result in someone eventually saying something stupid like "There are no taboos left". Of course there are taboos, with the one's you pointed out being Exhibit A for the prosecution.
It's the same with Noah. I thought he was brilliant for the first several dozens of columns. Now, he's run out of gas about 4/5ths of the time, and one can sense he's unsuccessfully grasping for topics to maintain daily momentum.
George Will writes 2 columns a week. That's about right. He can take the time to reflect on a topic. When was the last time you heard George say something stupid? For me, never.
If Turchen's theory on the overproduction of elites is correct (it is), then I place the Substack-ification of world geopolitical analysis now in the hands of a few million wannabe Bari Weiss's as proof that it's true.
I read a few of his columns; they seem shallow. He resorts to straw boogeymen. The extreme define the middle.
This makes me sound like a doofus, but with op ed journalism, shallow is fine for me. The current set of youngsters trying to nail down hard reality ("there are no taboos left") and adopting the seasoned mein of great thinkers while mouthing supercilious nose picker platitudes leaves me just wanting some reasonable and decent person writing a decent column in their own voice. Straw boogeyman...you'd have to cite examples, but frankly, I don't care. I like George.
2nd reply - George Will - great stuff, for a long time. In fact, I subscribe to WaPo just to read his column. They keep trying to raise my rates so I keep saying 'bye' so they go back to the less expensive rate... anyway, I detest WaPo commenters... ugh! So very hateful. I suggest never read any comments about a George Will post.
can I get Will's column somewhere else?
I'm not aware of anyplace else to get George.
This makes me think of the trilogy of the three Californias, Kim Stanley Robinson's utopian trilogy, published in the 1980's. I don't remember which one, but to become a well-known author, it was via similar to online these days, not by writing books, & back when these books were published, online writing was pretty much non-existent, or at best in its infancy. I love scifi - so forward thinking, imaginative...
In real life conversation, if a person said, "There are so few taboos left that people who want to shock have to be all Kill the Jews," another person could immediately raise the obvious counter-argument, hopefully causing the first person to say, "Oh, right," and then the Southern Hostess could say, "More pie, boys? I can open another bottle of wine."
Having a venue from which to Pundit with no real-time feedback -- "That's dumb, Mom. Maybe you should go to bed after you give us more pie: you've been up since 4:30." -- can cause a person's argumentation skills to deteriorate. One almost never sees the holes in one's own reasoning. That's why we need other people to keep us from being dumb.
Geeze, Cynthia... With all the pie you seem to serve, how do you ever find any time to even get out of the kitchen and go to the store for more wine?
My husband goes to Costco and buys wine.
Yup. I'll have another slice, if there's any left.
Is it sugar cream pie?
hope so, 'cause I've never had it, I'd love to try some
Me too!
The late Norm McDonald had a joke where he said (and I am not quoting); 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒇 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒔 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒃𝒐𝒎𝒃, 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 50 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒔: 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒂𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆?
Sadly, it seems many commenters elsewhere didn't realize it was a joke. Yes, we shouldn't round up and arrest all Afghans, but yeah, I understand the general wariness some might have as a result of the terrorist who murdered a National Guard soldier.
Suppose Phil's beloved Bucks blow out TUUN this afternoon. Suppose some crazed Xichigan fan then shoots up Buckeye fans in Ann Arbor. It would be a horrific tragedy. But I guarantee their fans will condemn the shooting and the shooter, and people in the state of Ohio aren't going to retaliate against TUUN fans.
Norm. His stuff snuck up on you.
He had talent, for sure. SNL didn't know what to make of him, however.
Many years ago, I read an account about him wherein he ran afoul of some exec at NBC who then made it his personal vendetta campaign to destroy him. Got him fired from SNL, then literally "followed him" and destroyed every other venture he tried in media and entertainment.
I think its adorable that you call OSU-UM "the game." There is only one THE GAME, it was played last weekend, and Yale beat Harvard. Go Bulldogs!
IDK... It seems to me there's a serious effort by some being put into gaming the definition of "The Game" this morning.
But there is only one correct answer.
Well, of course there is. But exactly *what that is* depends on exactly *who you're asking*, doesn't it?
No point in asking me, though, since I've only followed the ponies for many years now.
You have to watch where you step when you're following the ponies, don't you?
True. But I've found I often somehow manage to step in it no matter where I am or what I'm doing.
And that answer will be played starting at noon today. 🙂
If by today you mean last week...
🤣
And just when was the last time that either Harvard or Yale won a national championship? Those schools actually got the NCAA to create a subdivision of Division I (formerly called Division !-AA, now called FCS) just so they didn't have to play teams like Ohio State that could beat their a$$!
Yes, there is only one 'The Game"! GO BUCKS!
Yeah, the flawed, corrupt rating system for the playoffs that kept FSU out when they lost their QB. Or the one that has so-called student athletes driving around in Bentleys from all the lucre schools throw at them. I would say that using THE GAME for the OSU-UM tilt is cultural appropriation. Yale-Harvard is the OG. And the Ivies kept their schools out of the FCS playoffs until this year because their players have to....oh, I don't know...study and attend class. I was amazed that the Ivy League actually relented and is allowing their teams to enter the FCS playoffs this year. Harvard and Yale are both in.
“Cultural appropriation?” 🤣
J'accuse!
I lived my early years in CT, near New Haven, and have fantastic memories of attending a few Yale games. But I don’t think I ever saw the Harvard game.
Its really quite fun. Much better at the Yale Bowl than the mausoleum that Harvard has. More open. Better tailgating. Sadly, my senior year it was at Harvard, and although the class rented a train to transport us, it was a glum ride back in that we lost. Sad, drunken college students are the worst.
Sad, sober college students are second worst.
Phil H could not be reached for comment. 😉
Not true! I commented!
Somehow, I think the comment will reach him and he will respond in his usual calm and reasoned manner.