Friday, May 02, 2003
Still alive...
I'm on the road, posting this from a coffee shop at my alma mater. I haven't been on campus in 20 years and I barely recognize the place. Anyway, things will be slow around here for the next several days while I'm on the road visiting some relatives and friends, so check out the links on the sidebars. Or even the archives.
Monday, April 28, 2003
Most dangerous intersections in the US
This list is national. Toward the bottom you can request a list by state.
Blogbash, at last
Yes, I've been dragging butt about announcing the latest Midwest Blogbash in St. Louis. But now it's settled - May 9, at 7:00 to whenever, at TNGs in Kirkwood. Yes, it's the same place as last time, so it's convenient for Austin and Gato to call Australia and JD can have another shot at the barmaids.
For you slackers who didn't show the last time, it's here, and here is some info.
Yes, it's short notice, but there's a good reason - it'll be my last Friday night in St. Louis. See you there.
For you slackers who didn't show the last time, it's here, and here is some info.
Yes, it's short notice, but there's a good reason - it'll be my last Friday night in St. Louis. See you there.
Culinary catchall
Where I grew up in small-town central IL, the food was pretty basic and conservative. Meat and potatoes, yes sir, with corn or green beans on the side. Maybe a salad once in a while, or lima beans or brussels sprouts. But that was about it - even onions were exceptional, and breakfast sausage was about the spiciest thing we ate. Pizza showed up in town in the mid-60's, but even it was bland. All other Italian food was Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. And but for a restaurant that served chop suey once a week, Chinese and Mexican food came in cans.
The potatoes were boiled, mashed, baked, or maybe even scalloped or au gratin. Occasionally they might assume the form of French fries. But these were usually frozen, and were eaten with ketchup.
Later I heard that some people eat their french fries with mayonnaise. Ugh. I suppose it's not so much different from potato salad, but it's the thought - this just isn't done. (Then again I thought it would be disgusting to get sauerkraut on a pizza but it actually wasn't too bad - you'll find this near the Mississippi River around the Quad Cities and points north.)
It gets worse. I've never had poutine, and until I stumbled across it on Colby Cosh (yeah, just try to link to a post there) I hadn't heard of it. No doubt purists will scream at this description, but near as I can tell it's french fries covered with gravy and curd cheese. We have Quebec to thank for this, but now the virus is spreading via McDonalds and others to points west and south.
Then there's this concoction found around US 66/I-55 in downstate IL and St. Louis called the horseshoe sandwich. It's kinda what you'd get if you ordered a hot beef sandwich, but swapped the mashed potatoes for french fries and the gravy for cheese sauce. It doesn't have to be roast beef though - as interpreted by the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, IL (salute!), you can have it with turkey breast, ham, bacon and tomato or hamburger. (Maybe somewhere you can order a horseshoe sandwich with poutine on the side and a deep-fried Twinkie for dessert. Throw in an extra-large milkshake and you might as well call the coroner.)
Food doesn't have to be good to be good. If you ever go to Atlanta, check out the Varsity and you'll see what I mean. You can't miss the place, just off I-75/85 at the North Avenue exit, just east of that bulwark of civilization known as Georgia Tech. I'll probably be passing through there shortly, and I'll stop for chili dogs, the world's greasiest fries and an FO. The stuff must be brain food, because generations of engineers and scientists have lived off it.
Enough - it's time to eat.
The potatoes were boiled, mashed, baked, or maybe even scalloped or au gratin. Occasionally they might assume the form of French fries. But these were usually frozen, and were eaten with ketchup.
Later I heard that some people eat their french fries with mayonnaise. Ugh. I suppose it's not so much different from potato salad, but it's the thought - this just isn't done. (Then again I thought it would be disgusting to get sauerkraut on a pizza but it actually wasn't too bad - you'll find this near the Mississippi River around the Quad Cities and points north.)
It gets worse. I've never had poutine, and until I stumbled across it on Colby Cosh (yeah, just try to link to a post there) I hadn't heard of it. No doubt purists will scream at this description, but near as I can tell it's french fries covered with gravy and curd cheese. We have Quebec to thank for this, but now the virus is spreading via McDonalds and others to points west and south.
Then there's this concoction found around US 66/I-55 in downstate IL and St. Louis called the horseshoe sandwich. It's kinda what you'd get if you ordered a hot beef sandwich, but swapped the mashed potatoes for french fries and the gravy for cheese sauce. It doesn't have to be roast beef though - as interpreted by the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, IL (salute!), you can have it with turkey breast, ham, bacon and tomato or hamburger. (Maybe somewhere you can order a horseshoe sandwich with poutine on the side and a deep-fried Twinkie for dessert. Throw in an extra-large milkshake and you might as well call the coroner.)
Food doesn't have to be good to be good. If you ever go to Atlanta, check out the Varsity and you'll see what I mean. You can't miss the place, just off I-75/85 at the North Avenue exit, just east of that bulwark of civilization known as Georgia Tech. I'll probably be passing through there shortly, and I'll stop for chili dogs, the world's greasiest fries and an FO. The stuff must be brain food, because generations of engineers and scientists have lived off it.
Enough - it's time to eat.
Another constitutional amendment?
Anne Wilson proposes one here to prevent abuse of our citizenship rules. Hmm.
Santorum - you know what I'm talking about
It seems that most of the objections to Rick Santorum's recent statement take the form of "Republicans are equating homosexuality and incest" or "Don't the Republicans know when to keep their powder dry?"
Good grief, doesn't the fact that some want Santorum to step down from various party positions based on a contrived partisan misrepresentation of his remarks tell you what this is really about? If you don't like the guy, fine. But if he's as bad as some of us would have you believe, surely he's done worse than this or will. And there's still a long time before the next big elections - can't you build a better case than this?
In a welcome breath of common sense, John Leo lays out everything here.
Good grief, doesn't the fact that some want Santorum to step down from various party positions based on a contrived partisan misrepresentation of his remarks tell you what this is really about? If you don't like the guy, fine. But if he's as bad as some of us would have you believe, surely he's done worse than this or will. And there's still a long time before the next big elections - can't you build a better case than this?
In a welcome breath of common sense, John Leo lays out everything here.
Sunday, April 27, 2003
It must be a rhetorical question
From here:
One "top Egyptian editor" told the Wall Street Journal back in 1991 about a conversation he had with Saddam. "I remember his saying, 'Compared to tanks, journalists are cheap--and you get more for your money.'"Glenn Reynolds pointed to the item that contains the above, and later asks "Is it ethical not to expose these people, if we find out who they are?"
Time for an Iraqi Marshall Plan?
The ends of wars are always messy. George W. Bush's partisan enemies would like to present the current conditions in Iraq as a failure of his policies.
I'm sure that analysis after the fact will reveal some areas for improvement. But by historic standards, which are the only reasonable standards, we expect some chaos after a war like that in Iraq. For examples, Glenn Reynolds excerpts this right here.
I'm sure that analysis after the fact will reveal some areas for improvement. But by historic standards, which are the only reasonable standards, we expect some chaos after a war like that in Iraq. For examples, Glenn Reynolds excerpts this right here.
Auto-blogrolling
Going through my referrals, I decided to follow one of them to see where it hit me. Ah, right here on this page. If you haven't been reading this blog for very long, well, just look at what you've been missing!
The Perfect Man
Long have we humans sought the perfect mate. For centuries men have poured their hearts out into poetry like the following:
"I've finally found the perfect girl, I could not ask for more,
She's deaf and dumb and oversexed and owns a liquor store."
Women tend to value other criteria more highly. Ravenwood knows these things. Lacking the stamina to service all women (I presume), he offers us the Perfect Man.
Other women, notably bulimics, may find this more appealing.
"I've finally found the perfect girl, I could not ask for more,
She's deaf and dumb and oversexed and owns a liquor store."
Women tend to value other criteria more highly. Ravenwood knows these things. Lacking the stamina to service all women (I presume), he offers us the Perfect Man.
Other women, notably bulimics, may find this more appealing.
Where's the hate?
I've done a little frog-bashing here, but apparently I haven't done it right - I'm just not getting the hate mail I deserve. But Beaker did, and he has some fun with it here.
But frog-bashing is so anonymous - if you want to get personal, he offers www.famousidiot.com with its celebrity quotes. It includes this from Jennifer Aniston:
But frog-bashing is so anonymous - if you want to get personal, he offers www.famousidiot.com with its celebrity quotes. It includes this from Jennifer Aniston:
( 9/1/2001 ) Aniston mentions how musicians in the Eighties had something to be pissed off about, with Reagan in the White House. I ask her what she thinks of Bush. She vents about him in detail, eloquently, but off the record. She says she doesn't want to come off like another actor blathering about politics. On the record, she'll only say, "Bush is a fucking idiot," and flip him a double-bird, and that Jenna Bush - the Bush daughter whose underage drinking has proved embarrassing for the administration - had a summer internship at Brillstein-Grey, the management firm where she and Pitt are represented. "We'd pass her in the hall," Aniston says, "and Brad would say, 'Heyyyy, Jenna, wanna beer? I got one in the truck!'"Charming.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)