About the Weather

I live in New Jersey. Whatever powers that be seem to be attempting to put my state into the ocean. While one friend calls to tell me that she's been evacuated from her house because the water was coming up the steps, another tells me she's gone for a walk outside because it's "just rain".

I'm somewhere in the middle with a sump pump that can't handle the pressure. I'm glad I keep my things in the basement in plastic bags and bins.

Imus Fired, Breaks Corzine's Leg

I am completely shocked that Imus' radio show has been cancelled. See, I never thought he was funny, but after 30 years, I didn't think it mattered any more what he said. Well, the world went and proved me wrong, when an off-hand insult to women athletes that was probably uttered without significant thought caused a giant uproar.

The hoopla in the media went so far as to get to the point where Imus was to apologize in person to the Rutgers women's basketball team. The meeting was to take place at Drumthwacket, and Governor Corzine was to attend.

Yes, he was scheduled to be there, but on his way, his SUV was hit by a white truck that swerved when cut off by a red truck. A lot of trucks in this story. Now Corzine's in critical but stable condition, with a laundry list of broken stuff:

When Corzine arrived at the hospital, doctors said he was conscious but had suffered several injuries: a femur bone broken in two places that had lacerated his skin, a broken sternum, six broken ribs on each side, a head laceration and a minor fracture on a lower vertebrae.

So here's my logic - if Imus hadn't been so flippant about other people's reputations and feelings, Corzine wouldn't be facing months of rehab. Bad Karma going on here, people.

Alackaday

"Goodness me the clock has struck / Alackaday, and fuck my luck"
- Kurt Vonnegut(1922-2007), Slaughterhouse Five

The Trend Towards Food Blogs

Sharon GR has one, Jill is talking about starting one, Tata's blog has long been food inclusive, and we all know of my fascination with cheese, and perhaps now, brisket.

I haven't ever even mentioned my fascination with making cake sculptures. (I should have trimmed that mustache a bit, huh?)















Still, last night, as I wandered close to awakening, I very vividly dreamed of making up a pan of scrambled egg whites with shallots in truffle oil. When I actually did awaken, I realized that I don't have any truffle oil and I was disappointed.

Now I wonder why so many smart women I know are thinking about food so much, lately. Is it because politics has finally sent our brains running to something we can actually control? Maybe, but at least this neurotic retreat contains actual nutrition.

Just a Quick Comment

Re: The whole Imus dust-up.

Insulting the looks of a women's basketball team is just mean, whether you use racist terms or not. When I heard that the whole conversation started off with a disparagement of women who have tattoos, my first thought was "Jeez, Imus is old and out of touch, all right".

Do people talk about how the Seton Hall players look? Not that I can recall...

I also don't think that Imus deserves the free publicity, but here I am, talking about it, anyway.

My Local News Sometimes Goes National

Perhaps you've heard about the FBI agent shot at the scene of an attempted bank robbery, yesterday April 5, 2007? They caught two of the perpetrators yesterday, and I read that today they've caught the third.

The robbery attempt was in Readington Twp, NJ, which is in my county, and not all that far from my gym. It was all anyone could talk about around the treadmills last night, which made it kind of surreal when it was on the TVs over the treadmills at the same time. All three of the alleged criminals are from New Brunswick, the town next to mine, so my whole ride home was peppered with an actual dragnet of cops. They were everywhere, man. My ride home was creepy. Also, my ride home was conducted at exactly the speed limit. Now I know it takes me 28 minutes to go 8 miles.

I find it odd to read that this is the first FBI agent to be killed by a bullet in 10 years. I also find it odd to read this:

The authorities said the robbers in those cases wore ski masks, baseball hats, black gloves, hooded sweatshirts, trench coats and work boots, and carried a big money bag.

A big money bag? Did it have a dollar sign on the side of it or something?

All of it seems surreal to me, even though I saw the effects of it on the area first hand.

I Love the Internets

...and what they can do for targeted marketing.

Yes, I just got an email from Lawry's, makers of the seasoned salt that I keep in my pantry. Recipies! Inspirations from their test kitchens!

I am very amused, and now I find myself wondering what's in the Lawry's seasoned salt. I assume paprika, because it's orange...

OK, I looked it up: Salt, Sugar, Spices Including Paprika and Turmeric, Onion, Cornstarch, Garlic, Tricalcium Phosphate (Prevents Caking), Paprika Oleoresin (For Color), Natural Flavor, Soy Lecithin. Contains NO M.S.G.

Hmmm. I don't like it when an ingredients listing tells me what's not in there. Like the hair conditioner that says on it "contains no wax". You know it says that because it's waxy enough that people would ask.

So, back to the seasoned salt. I could do without the sugar, and the cornstarch, the soy lecithin and the nebulous "natural flavor". Maybe I'll just buy a bottle of turmeric and see if I can't mix up my own. Salt, paprika, onion & garlic I've got.

Now I'm depressed. I liked that stuff.

And More Things

Running Scared is back up, and I am no longer pissed off at Powerblogs. Turns out we both made mistakes, although I believe that I made fewer than they did.

I was right, no one could make it to the first seder. No worries, I stuffed everything in the fridge and freezer and we had a lovely time last night. Brisket just gets better when you let it sit, anyway.

Only one of my personal projects is done, ugh.

I hope to get back to the point of writing political opinion any day now, but in the mean time, I feel like sharing the brisket recipe I used. I started out with the recipe by Emeril from the Food Network site, but when I saw that his called for ketchup, chili sauce & brown sugar, I decided to deviate.

Tami's Brisket
1 beef brisket, mine was 4.7 pounds
4 cups broth or stock, I used chicken broth, because it's what I had
Garlic cloves - lots of garlic cloves
1 medium onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
Lawry's seasoned salt
Onion Powder
Dried Thyme
Coarse ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

(like I said, I start out like Emeril)
Using a paring knife and your fingers, make holes in the brisket and stuff them with whole garlic cloves, all over. I recommend making the hole then stuffing, rather than making multiple holes and trying to figure out where they were when you go back.

Place brisket in baking dish/pan, and put in oven to brown (about 5 minutes)
Turn brisket over and brown it on the other side.

Turn the oven down to 350.

Add enough liquid to go to about 1 inch deep in the pan (don't remove the brisket). Tent with foil. Continue cooking about an hour.

Heat a skillet on medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, then add the onions. Adjust heat so that they're cooking slowly, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until they're carmelized, about 20 minutes. Remove onions from heat.

(this is where I broke away from the recipe)
When the hour is up, add the carmelized onions and the rest of the spices to the meat. Replenish liquid if necessary. Turn the brisket over, season the other side, and return to oven, 1 hour.

After an hour, turn the brisket again. Tent if it looks like it's drying out. Add more liquid if necessary. Return brisket to oven.

After another hour, test the tenderness level of the brisket with a fork. If it's still too firm, continue cooking, and check every 20 minutes or so. I took mine out at the 3-hour 40-minute point. Your brisket should not be so tender that it falls apart, or you won't be able to slice it.

Let brisket rest 10 minutes, slice it (against the grain). Reserve pan juices to serve with the meat.

Brisket can be served immediately, but invariably tastes better if it's chilled for at least a day and then served re-heated.

Everybody liked the meat. I especially loved the way the garlic cloves looked when I sliced it up.

So Many Things

So the first thing I noticed this morning is that Running Scared is down. No response yet, btw, so I'm still pissed off.

Then, I went and checked for bad news on the blog of a friend. Bad news obliged me by showing up right on top.

Then, I tried to get a handle on the 3 projects I'm doing at work.

I have 2 personal projects I need to get a handle on, today, as well.

I have 1 personal project that I need to let go of because I just can't figure out when to do it (I probably could have been doing that instead of this).

My cousin is still in the hospital after her back surgery, causing everyone stress, because we thought she'd be home by now and she didn't think that she'd hurt as much as she does.

Tonight's the first seder, and I don't know if anyone in my family, including me, is going to be able to show up.

I cooked a brisket yesterday, anyway.

Powerblogs is Pissing Me Off

When I tried to ask them how to pay for a blog, they completely blew me off.

Months later, they sent me a threatening email stating that if I didn't pay immediately, that they would take down Running Scared. The email also included the instructions for how to go about paying that I had been waiting for all along.

So, I went, and I followed their directions, and I set up payments. I replied to my email threat, and the email bounced. I found that very disconcerting, but when the payment went through, I assumed it would be all right.

Well, today Running Scared is down, with the message that the blog has been cancelled for non-payment.

They have my money. It's not a lot of money, but it's what they asked for.

I'm pissed.

They've Been a Bad Little Country

Iran says may not release British woman

TEHRAN (Reuters) -
Iran will delay the release of the only woman among 15 British military personnel detained last week if Tehran is faced with "fuss and wrong behavior" from Britain, a senior Iranian official said on Thursday.

Holy cow, this is the kind of crap we dump on the rest of the world all the time, isn't it? "You're a spoiled child, and we're the adult". This kind of pomposity is what makes other countries hate us, why does Iran think that it will work for them, now?

Someone will launch a military operation in Iran, and I suspect it will be England, since they're the ones being openly chastised in the world theater. And if England does jump in, will our troops be far behind to help?

Glass Half Empty

Iran 'seizes' 15 British Marines

A dispute ensued over whether the Marines were in Iraqi, international, or Iranian territorial waters, and the 15 were then seized and taken to Iran, the U.S. military official said.

I'm not saying that we're going to war right away. What I'm saying is that when they teach about this in schools, it will be reported as the incident that brought Iran in to World War III.

I would be so, so happy to be wrong.

See, here's the thing - every once in a while we see a news item or a blog post that talks about how military recruiting numbers are down, or how we're now spread so thin that we couldn't really defend ourselves militarily on a new front. Perhaps you recall reading about soldiers being taken off medical disability or individuals with criminal records now being accepted as recruits. I believe that all of these things are true.

If all of these things are true, then how in the world can the U.S. ever achieve victory on any of these fronts. Hell, I'm not even sure that I understand what victory is supposed to be, any more. These two wars that I'm thinking of, Afghanistan and Iraq, who exactly are we in a war against? The Afghani and Iraqi governments? Aren't they now constructs that we helped build? If we're not fighting the governments, than who are we fighting, and more importantly, who can we negotiate a truce or a cease-fire with?

Who's in charge of all this violence and conflict? Who's working towards all the killing and the destruction? Without clear sides, how can the war ever stop?

World Got You Down?

Well, why wouldn't it? I mean, the country's being run by the most selfish people that exist in the 50 states, people who are literally strip-mining the populace of its will to be reasonable. Global warming is hotly (yes, you may smack me for the pun) contended. Corruption flourishes in almost every state government. Gas costs a million dollars and citrus fruit is getting really expensive.

Is there nothing that can cheer us up?

Of course there is! In the words of one of the commenters on Cute Overload:

Is teh polar blog!!!

Irony Calling

How come I see this headline Global temps set record for warmest winter on a day when I'm watching the snow fall?

More Moral Quandries

I've been home a lot lately, which you may or may not know. I had a DVT that did the whole "travel to the lung" thing, which, when it doesn't kill you, makes you tired as hell for a long time. So I'm just not getting out and about like I used to. This means that I'm having more political discussions with my dad than usual, because, holy cow, that man is home a lot. Recently, there have been two things we've talked about that I wanted to mention here. I actually got off my butt and am mentioning them. It's a minor miracle.

First thing: "pension relief" in New Jersey. The concept that raising the retirement age will save money for the state because older retirees won't receive as much in pension money is a wash. Those people are working for the state at full salary, people. And the odds are that if they're at retirement age, then they're at the top of the earnings scale. Paying out their pensions would actually cost the state less, wouldn't it? Am I missing something?

Second thing: Gonzales, replacing US Attorneys, should he retire, etc, etc. My dad said to me, "At least Gonzales is better than what we had before". I'm not so sure, though. Yes, I think that Ashcroft is a bit of a loon who has firm beliefs about the world and how it works that I think do that whole "causal disconnect" thing. I admit it, I think the man is nuts. But I think that Gonzales is self-serving and anti-Constitution. I think he, in addition to plenty of other government officials, has been successfully undermining the document that is the foundation of American society the entire time he's held his position. I find that I can't make a better/worse comparison between insane and amoral.

Where Are We Going?

Down the economic tubes, baby.

Wall Street Slammed After China Stock Woes

NEW YORK — Stocks had their worst day since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Tuesday, briefly hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 500 points on a worldwide tide of concern that the U.S. and Chinese economies are stumbling and that share prices have become overinflated.

Who does the U.S. government owe billions of dollars to (beside Japan)?China. Go ahead, explain to me how the stock market and the national debt aren't at all related.

Let's face facts, the minute we ditched the gold standard for federal reserve notes, our initial situation of pretending something was valuable went out the window for a scheme based on *actually* nothing. We (the U.S.) will never have enough money to pay off our national debt. We must instead simply hope that the countries we owe so much money to develop such severe economic problems that our debt somehow gets cancelled out. It's like a never ending game of Monopoly on a global scale.

Monday, Monday

An actual debate I had last week: Who would make a worse president of the U.S, GWB, or Alfred E. Neuman?

I was calling the contest a tie.

True Love

Oh, Macbook Pro 17, you make my heart beat so fast! So fast!

Good News

I expect my shiny shiny new laptop today, so I should be online a lot more. To be honest, sitting in the uncomfy computer chair kinda makes my leg ache, so I've been avoiding it. I look forward to being portable.

Hi. Um, I've Been... Out.

So last Thursday, I went to the doctor because my breathing felt really labored, and that's the kind of crap you go to the doctor for. Still, you expect him or her to say "bronchitis", or even worse, "pneumonia", give you a script for antibiotics and you'll be on your way home for soup, tea, and daytime TV. You do not expect your doctor to say, "I'm going to go get the other doctor" and them have them tell you together that they think you have a pulmonary embolism and that you're going to the hospital right now. And then I spent a week in the hospital, which sucked, even though I had a portable DVD player and a bunch of visits and phone calls, and Ceaser brought me a pony.

But now I'm home, and I'm way better, and there's a new Barenaked Ladies* video to watch. While this is not my favorite song on the album, the video's pretty funny, so I figured I'd share.



*Barenaked Ladies, the official favorite band of the One True Tami