totopoca

Hey I have a new word for you. Actually it's an ancient word from the Aztecs. It's their word for the sound of many kernels popping at once — totopoca.

Paleobotanists (if I post enough stuff about ancient things can I call myself a paleoblogger? I'm fairly pale this summer.) say that popcorn played an significant role in the Aztec empire. From the little I've read about this it appears they were popping corn before they were making a corn flour. (oh wait, if I want to be paleoblogger I should use "maize" instead of corn)

amazing maize

I wonder how Aztecs were popping their corn many thousands of years ago. I'm old enough to recall popping it on the stove. I guess the difficult problem of popping all the kernels vs. burning the popped corn has existed for many millennia. Now, I pop it in the magical microwave. But if those advanced aliens visited the Aztecs then maybe they had microwaves too. Those paleobotanists have discovered "old maid" kernels dated from about 4000 years ago.

timed for 1:44 works best for me

I didn't notice any mention of caramel,  cheese or butter in the articles I read about Aztec popcorn. Probably a good thing that they didn't have those addictive extras for their popcorn. Movies were not invented yet so if they spent too much time munching what would they watch? (the original Aliens series)

I know they didn't need to worry about the FDA labeling rules (or have the protection of labeling rules). There is a new food fight over wording starting up. Remember the recent one about milk vs. almond milk labeling? The raisins vs. craisins was an exciting marketing showdown of dried fruit.

Labels tell us the difference between sh-- and shinola

Since we seldom know (or even care about?) the production chain involved in our packaged foods, the labeling is important.

The latest label war brewing involves the "meat" label. A company called Memphis Meats is growing meat in their lab. Cultured meat might be a good term for it. Others might just say, disgusting. They would like to call it "clean meat". I disagree about calling it clean. Here's a statement I found on their website:

At Memphis Meats, our mission is to bring delicious and healthy meat to your table by harvesting it from cells instead of animals. You can enjoy the meat you love today and feel good about how it’s made because we strive to make it better for you…and for the world.

Back to the popcorn - here's a informative clip about popcorn history:

my sad disclaimer - unfortunately, food items such as popcorn, soft drinks were NOT provided free for this post. Oh, don't want any cultured meat.

Gluten free bananas and other breakfast thoughts

My bowl started gluten free, just bananas, then I added shredded wheat. Wheat is a prime source of gluten so I guess the bananas had limited benefit.

gluten free romance

That thought had me check out the history of gluten. It goes way way back to 8800 BCE (those dates look so precise as if someone had a FB live event back then, it was probably 8802) when humans started harvesting the grains in wild grasses in the fertile crescent. Oh no, another problem coming from the middle east. (Fake news headline - Terrorist push gluten on westerners)

Really this gluten free thing is a problem for a few people that has been hyped up by marketing. On a whim, (a gluten induced whim) I searched for “gluten free water”. I discovered a company advertising “gluten free water”. I didn’t check the price. Why bother, I’m never buying into this trendy scam.

The company BLK says this about their water:

blk. has zero calories, zero carbs, zero sugars, zero caffeine, and contains no dyes, flavorings or additives. We’re gluten-free, non-GMO, certified kosher, and organic.

Kosher and organic too! BLK is apparently short for black. Why black? The company adds, excuse me, enhances their water with with humic and fulvic acid. The water reacts with the result of a black color and higher price. No thanks, I like my water clear. Now I do enjoy dark beer.

Don’t know if this BLK water will sell much in Boston. Remember they have the river Charles. But I love that dirty water.





I’m a genius!
Well ok, but at least I am very stable.
Geniuses don’t think outside of the box. They make their own boxes.

Thinking of boxes? How about cylindrical talking gadgets for the home - you know those rounded boxes offered by Amazon called Alexa. This headline caught my eye after that gluten high subsided.

Amazon's Alexa randomly laughs at users and nobody knows why

A quote from the article

"[So] my mom & I are just sitting in the living room, neither of us said a word & our Alexa lit up and laughed for no reason. she didn't even say anything, just laughed. we unplugged her."

Wow, I didn’t know that one aunt of mine was Alexa. They sound different but she is known to randomly laugh. I don’t have an Alexa to unplug and I rarely see this one aunt, so I’m ok.

Oh regarding this gluten stuff - Good article at CNN - Basically, everybody with celiac disease needs to be on a gluten-free diet, others maybe not.
But my advice - stay away from that dirty water.

I don’t find this stuff amusing anymore

I hope you do. At least, I hope some of my musings are amusing.
 
Yesterday the New England Patriots went up against everyone in America and lost. Patriots and Eagles are a good mix-up of American symbols.

public art in a nearby town

Could the following two odd things I've noticed be harbingers of our lives in the near future?

1)  I recently discovered the existence the International Asteroid Warning Network.
This is both scary and reassuring. Scary because one day the sky could be falling and life as we know it will be screwed. Reassuring because at least some smart people with advance equipment are working together to give us warning. Also possibly with enough warning and global cooperation we could minimize the impact.

2)  In late January there were Nutella riots in France.
I love hazel nuts and I've tasted Nutella. Meh. What food would be worth fighting over? Ok, maybe if a killer asteroid is scheduled to hit soon I might put extra effort in stocking up on beer and wine. It was reported that "In at least three cases, police were called after customers came to blows in the frenzy for Nutella." WOW, imagine getting hit in the head (or nuts) with a jar of Nutella.

Reviewing old posts on my blog aids my recollection of past events. Years ago I traveled with my uncle to Chillicothe MO., the home of sliced bread, but I failed to have a sandwich there. 

I enjoy an idiom but not an idiot. (thinking French Nutella buyers)

Often I’ll beat around the bush which ends with me barking up the wrong tree.

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al

Hopefully I didn’t bite off more than I could chew with this post but at the drop of a hat, the ball is in your court. No pennies needed, the comment section is open now.



 

I don't golf but I love hash browns

Remember the news that you learn here at the Lisleman’s Institute for Better Postings could be valuable to you or your descendants. (actually if you happen to discover any use for anything you learn here, I would love to know)

read on to discover why this picture is not extraneous

Now this strange story may have already popped up on your internet travels since it's very strange. There's a recall of hash browns because of golf balls. Actually “extraneous golf ball materials” was the description used in the McCain Foods recall announcement. Extraneous does sound better than the synonym irrelevant but I would suggest the straight forward approach of "we-have-no-f'ing-clue-how" golf ball ..."

Really? how would golf balls get mixed into a supply of potatoes? (now can-you-believe-it President Trump does own many golf courses - just saying)

Here's a real news story link on this recall.

Other than my wife's great hash browns, my favorite hash browns are found at the Waffle House. Good coffee and food for a reasonable price. Their scattered smothered and peppered hash brown dish is my favorite. I seldom order their waffles. Their scattered hash browns offer many options but not golf balls.

Fee fi fiddley aye, oh - another tweet selected by the tweet judge Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune: "What kind of psychopath works on the railroad all the live long day just to pass the time away?"

OH WAIT - there's more:

For all readers that have scrolled this far down, here's a song about Waffle House performed by Sturgill Simpson and Stephen Colbert.



(my sad disclaimer - unfortunately, items such as waffles, hash browns, or coffee were NOT provided to me by the Waffle House for this post.)

real donut news

Do you recall my idea of the Church of the Donut?

I don't recall where this pic came from

If you do, praise the donut and bring some over next time you are around.

Back in the glory days of blogging, I had a streak of ideas to share. (much better than sharing my streaking the coliseum) Looking back I notice 2013 was a banner year for my idea generator. Now I post less and wear out my slippers quicker. Does the day and my feet need to drag together?

Too often I just get part of the action/game/prize. For example years ago I thought being an absent-minded-professor type would be great. Now I’m finding myself being absent minded but I’m not a professor. I could open the Lisleman Institute for Unknown Studies and appoint myself a professor. However, I’ll never reach tenure since my institute has no funds for such things. So what’s the use.

Nothing is further from the truth, but something is close at hand.

If you were picking away the moments that make up a dull day, what wondrous exciting surprise would brighten your day? (actually if you comment on this my fairly brighten day will be brighter)

Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues by Danny O'Keefe 



Should it now be changed to "Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blogs".

One of the funny tweets selected by Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune:

"If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, that is where you should put the body"

Recently on FB my younger sister wrote that she “listened till my battery died” - now that's modern devotion. Sacrificing smartphone power for another person might be today’s version of the cup of sugar between 1950’s neighbors.

Oh the title - another ephemeral idea of mine - reporting real news about donuts through my blog. I did find one interesting story about Dunkin Donuts settlement of class action (better than a no class suit) suit over fake butter on a real bagel. Had it been a fake bagel the damages would be much worse. Here’s a link to the story for you buttered bagel lovers. I prefer cream cheese.

surprise pie

As you go through life you quickly learn that not all surprises are good. This post is about a surprise pie so how could that possibly be bad? (I guess a surprise pie in the face might be but that's never happened to me)

Recently we were on a road trip. My recent post about the lighthouse was part of this trip. She-with-better-taste and I decided to stop in Savannah GA. on our route up to North Carolina. Many years ago (don't remember exactly) we spent a few days in Savannah at a very nice B&B.

Our journey this time was from the Florida panhandle to north of Charlotte NC. I wasn't keen on driving around the busy Atlanta area so we went up I-95 which goes near Savannah. She-with-better-taste suggested that we stop and eat at Lady and Sons restaurant. During our stay years ago we ate at an earlier Lady and Sons location (think it was Paula Deen's first one). Awesome delicious food. 

Our timing was prefect. We arrived around 4 pm but had eaten little on the long drive so we were hungry. I noticed a sign on the door telling customers that there might be some filming taking place. We got seated right away. Soon after the waitress finished taking our order a young woman approached us and asked if we would mind being filmed. She also told us we would get a free dessert and a surprise. We quickly agreed but I was a little worried I end up with a parking ticket if it ran long. The parking is a bit more of problem than I recall from our first visit to Savannah.

After we filled our plates from the great buffet and sat down we noticed the crew starting to setup. I called the young woman (director, film crew manager?) over and asked where makeup was. She chuckled and told me that group didn't come along for shoot. I probably could have used the makeup but at least she-with-better-taste reminded me to take off my hat.

The surprise was a delicious pecan pie delivered by Paula Deen herself. We were shocked. Paula is southern charm all around. We could have talked with her for hours. It was not long before smartphones were pointed at our area from all directions. A line formed to get selfies with Paula. I've been looking on youtube for a video taken by one of those smartphones. Also, I learned the filming will shown on Paula's Evine channel but have not found it yet.

Thankfully my wife thought of taking this picture of Paula and me. We sent the news of our surprise to the relatives and her brother texted back "Paula Deen and Colonel Sanders must be great chicken".

colonel Sanders with Paula

Lastly: St. Patrick's day is just a hours away as I post this so here's a St. Patrick's day greeting from our youngest granddaughter.

you already know this

The other day I’m at the grocery store on a short important mission from she-knows-the-sales. Since the other place we often shop doesn’t carry a particular type of cereal I logically determine it would benefit my future breakfasts if I picked up a box while on my mission. This item was not listed in my directive from she-knows-the-sales.

It took me awhile to find it. This cereal is a brand name that I believe is popular among most adults. Of course there are now adults younger than our youngest daughter so maybe my guess of its popularity is off. I concluded that it was hard to find because this type of cereal doesn’t have coating of sugar or fruit flavors added to it. There are too many sugary fake fruity kids cereals on those shelves. They should reclassify these as candy and move them to the appropriate aisle.

Ok, I know getting fresh fruit, washing it, slicing it and placing it in your cereal bowl is more effort than just pouring a bowl of sugary fake fruity flakes. However the fresh fruit offers better nutrition and tastes better. I don’t cook. I mostly heat up stuff, microwave or make a sandwich. However, cleaning and slicing some fruit for my cereal is no big effort. If I can do it, an eight year old could probably do it. A baby ape can peel a banana.

I wonder if I would be here today writing these statements if my mom gave me just the sugary fake flavored stuff all the time. Most all cereal has sugar included in its contents. Why do you need to make each spoonful taste like a piece of sugar candy?

I found a picture of one of these sugary fake fruity cereals I'm ranting about. This one has been around longer than some of you. Can you name it?

looks like plastic

Kellogg’s introduced Froot Loops in 1962. There is no actual fruit in Froot Loops. You probably knew that (actually there might froot in it since nobody know what froot is). Also since 1962, kids have been misspelling the word fruit which might be an excuse for not having fruit at home.

I remember Froot Loops and other sugary cereals as a kid. I also remember not having them offered to me very often.

Here’s another twist to the reclassification idea. Just create an adult cereal section.

Please note: This post was NOT sponsored by any cereal company. However, if one would like to offer me some adult type of cereal I would gladly eat and review it.

non sequitur thoughts

(hey I don’t get to use Latin in my posts very often)

Yesterday my mind was in the gutter. I cleaned them. Messy smelly job getting the decaying leaves out of them. My neighbor noticed me strolling on the garage roof and offered his leave blower attachment for the gutter cleaning. The attachment is a good idea but this universal-fits-all one kept falling off the blower. Also, any disgusting water in gutter comes showering down on you.

No accidents, but that is what concerns me the most. I've never gotten very far up the ladders of my life.

a few steps up

If I could only train the squirrels to clean the gutter

Well let’s get out of the gutter.

How about breaking news about Hidden Valley Ranch dressing?

Ranch dressing case could end up in court

A regional grocer, Woodman's Food Market sued Clorox Co. last year for its decision to stop selling Woodman's large packages of Clorox products. One of the popular items was Hidden Valley Ranch dressing sold in twin packs of 40-ounce bottles. Clorox will not offer that packing to Woodman’s. Only the big-box stores have access to these large industrial size packages.

Yes, I was also shocked that Clorox owns the Hidden Valley dressing product line. Makes me wonder what is hidden in that dressing. The case has advanced now to the U.S. Appeals Court.

Do you think they will bring a good vegetable tray to the court as a supporting witness? (here’s a link to the story)

Now skipping along to other thoughts. Here's a possible parody floating in my head. Sing along:

What FACEBOOK needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What FACEBOOK needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.
Lord, we don't need another debate,
There are debates and rantings, enough crime
There are conspiracies and attacks enough to read,
Enough to last till the end of time.

more fragments piling up

Picture this (but with your MIND not your smartphone), you are a blogger, your fragmented ideas are piling up, pressure is building but these fragments don’t seem worthy of an individual post. What do you do?

Eat chocolate?  Twitter?  I guess twitter might work but I don’t use twitter so forget about twitter and don't fatten up on chocolate.  My solution for this common problem is Friday Fragments by Mrs. 4444. It’s like a well drained wash tub that you just can’t overflow.

kids do better at trick or treat

Hey chocolate lovers (not myself really but if you have an extra Snickers I’ll gladly take it off your hands), I read in the paper this week about a blog that gives a daily forecast and map for the chocolate smell coming from the Blommer Chocolate Factory. Here’s the forecast for today: 

Winds shift from the northwest for the first time this week, bringing the cocoa smell across the river into the Theatre District and parts of the loop. However, weaker winds mean the smell won’t carry as far today.

on the smelling good side of the street

I read the following on G+ today:

Respect your parents
They passed school without google

Hell I passed High School without a calculator. I earned an A in physics with just a sliderule (I could probably still calculate with one if I could find one).

this was a really good one, mine was cheaper

The blog, Mama’s Losin’ It, recently posted how the movie Dumbo was creepy. I recall the Wizard of Oz having a creepy part. It’s a top favorite of mine but those flying monkeys were creepy. The scariest movie I saw when I was a young teen was "The Birds". Give me Dracula or Frankenstein over pecking birds any day.

Oh speaking of movies, did you hear that a Tetris movie is being made?   Really? 

Wow did you notice how those two shapes are the perfect fit for their roles?

the Lego movie was good

Will George Clooney now become a man of constant sorrow? Hint watch "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". George was recently married in Italy. Do you think he sang a verse of that song at the reception?

It’s always hard to know for sure about these things, but I believe blogging has improved my smartass remark finesse. I see a vast improvement in my smartass comments/replies. 

Oh remember, a smartphone in your back pocket does not make you a smartass but perhaps the opposite.

friday brings funky fragments

Another week has been taken from the future and dropped into the past.  Our modern world allows us to record our favorite fragments of our latest past. Now I'm not suggesting that my Friday Fragments posts are deep sublime records of importance. Much the opposite really.  Just chips and dust from the rocks rolling in my head.

Oh, don't forget your FF posts are very welcomed at Mrs. 4444's blog located in the cheese section of the internet (I assume Wisconsin residents are required to support cheese).

click this link for more trip pics

Not in the loop? Some loops are like treadmills, they just don't go anywhere.

On our recent trip, my sister and BIL took us to a fabulous hamburger place in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. It really does sit at a T-intersection with not much around it. You know you are there because of the vehicles parked along the road leading up to it. We joined the long line to get in and the line was still long when we left. Great burgers and a to-die-for peach cobbler with homemade ice cream. The name of the place is Meers. Here’s their website.  Oh the parking meter in the pic doesn’t work.

plenty to chew on

In other food related news - “I’m lovin' it” creator not lovin' it anymore. McDonald's U.S. Chief Creative Officer Marlena Peleo-Lazar who created the “I’m lovin it” tagline is leaving the Oak Brook-based chain.

Truth available on a t-shirt - 

Embarrassing my children, just one more service I offer.

Most everyone knows by now that Google and Facebook track your online actions for their advertising customers. Well Google must know TMI on me because I keep seeing this “wear better underwear” ad. TMI right?
 
I don’t give a funk about it. (hmm, I don’t think anyone can give a funk. But you can be funky)

Facebook at times becomes funkbook for me. It needs more rainbows, lollipops, happy kids and less postings about problems and political views.  Funkbook can put me in funk.  Yet another thing I often don’t give a funk about.

Hey disco down to my comment section. Leave me some jive.



 

appetizers

Why do they exist?

I just don’t understand. I’m not too refined but I’m fine.

quick appetizer?

A dictionary definition says that appetizers are used to stimulate one’s appetite. This could be my problem because my appetite rarely needs stimulation. It’s typically ready to go, anytime anywhere. But really is my appetite that different? Would a skinner person out there please stand up and explain why their appetite needs stimulation.

Now, I know there are eating disorders. That's a medical problem and you'll need to check other sites for that discussion.  However, I’ve had plenty of missed orders related to my food. Often if you complain, good restaurants will give the mistake to you free or give you a free dessert. I once became a family legend with my ordering of Oriental Chicken Salad.

Much better restaurant than Applebees

I recall it was on slow trip through Indiana. Typically I'm very low keyed, even mellow. My motto is lighten up people. But don't lighten up the ingredients on my Oriental Chicken Salad. When you sprinkle driving time on top of hunger I get easily provoked.

The Applebees was busy but not overly so and we were seated quickly. I knew I was ordering the Oriental Chicken Salad when I flipped on the blinker to exit the interstate. Wife and kids decided their orders, gave the order, and then waited. The problem was not the slow turn around.

The orders were messed up. Daughter's Bacon Cheeseburger had no bacon. Then I noticed my salad was missing those crispy oriental noodles. I love crunchy.  Crispy crunchy noodles are the essence of this salad.

The waiter tells me they are out of crispy noodles. Too many problems here - I need some face time with the manager.

I bluntly explain to the manager that had I been told about their shortage of crispy noodles, I would have ordered something else.

I accepted some type of replacement and daughter's Bacon Cheeseburger comes back with bacon now but NO cheese.

Manager stop by to ask how we were doing. Not well, I explained.

In the end, the problem was rectified by the manager giving us the total meal free and including free desserts for the group. The other benefit came later when my famous stand for noodle rights became a family legend.

Now I ask you, would an appetizer have made a difference in this situation?

free-range bloggers and a dryer

Blog around much?

I do. Maybe you are free-range blogger. Better that than a fast food blogger.

Free-range means freedom to me. Blogging offers you freedom to set your own rules. Write what and when you want (real life often constrains the when) Of course some rules and/or words have the potential to turn readers away. Readers are essential for blogs. Your pictures, stories, thoughts, ideas, etc. need a reader for the sharing to occur. Comments from readers (not the spammer bots) are blog gold.

The other day, I read a post by Peggy (an Aussie blogger) that brought up the issue of our digital age’s impact on us and society. (check out her great post) While there are certainly many pros and cons to this digital age that streams into our lives, I consider blogging mostly on the pro side. (no surprise there)

My time today out wandering the real world left me thinking about how blogging can alter your view of the real world. As a blogger do you find yourself noticing and taking note of things/events for future use as a post topic? I have this little reporter guy in my head who typically forgets to take good notes. Do you?



The customer in front of me at the fast food counter today had a cellphone that looked older than my ancient flip-phone. He had it strapped to his belt (don't see that much anymore either). It looked like the old Nokia small slim brick ones. His phone made me feel up-to-date (say 2005 up-to-date).

I have a flip phone. I'm holding off from the smartphone craze. It's just a fad. My flip phone survives drops pretty well and the replaceable battery lasts. I did have the hinge break on one flip phone once. Recently some 20-somethings relatives were in shock that I still used my flip phone. One asked me how do I get on FB. Duh, a laptop.

We often watch TV with the I-pad nearby to look up whatever. I fixed our dryer by watching youtube clips about it. (here’s my post on the dryer)

Most of the time my posts are much less serious than fixing a dryer. My goal here is to generate a smile or even a laugh and have fun. Occasionally, I’ve accidentally inspired another blogger with an idea for a post. That just seems like magic to me.

How do you see blogging fitting into our digital age?

Then I saw her face
Now I'm a blogger.
Not a trace
Of doubt in my mind.
I’m in trouble
I’m a blogger
I couldn’t leave it if I tried.

cream - whipped or sour

I guess you can it both ways at the same time. I think of whipped cream as the sweet topping for a sundae or piece of pumpkin pie. Is this making you hungry? Well, actually I want to reminisce about music from the sixties, and LPs. Also, I discovered an album from that era that I had never known.

Oh the days when I was into vinyl. I’m referring to vinyl LPs. Yes I know you can still find vinyl LPs being sold but they are the exception today. Most of music I listen to today has been digitized. Either copied from a CD or downloaded from the web. You can’t put a vinyl LP directly into your Ipod. Carrying a record player around is not really mobile. So there are advantages to our digital music.

One aspect of the old LP days you might have forgotten or a younger reader never had known, is the LP art. I believe some of the album's cover art work was better than the music on the album. Do you remember this sexy cover?

The title song, “Whipped Cream” was etched into our brains by the TV show, “The Dating Game”. What a mistake to think I could learn dating tips from the show. I guess it reinforced the idea that dating is a game.

I’m including a youtube clip of “Whipping Cream” below for those wanting to refresh their memories. Maybe you’ll want to play it in the background during your dating game home version.

While deep in research on this album (at least 30 minutes) I found a parody of the album. Hah a parody, how surprising (not!) Lisleman would be interested in a parody.

Funny title too - “Sour Cream and Other Delights” (I wonder if making the album cover gave them smoother softer skin?)

Those five ladies vs. the young one -  I'll l bet the ladies have more recipes for sour or sweet cream than that sweet young one does.  Also, I know that thought never crossed my teenage mind.


Here’s The Frivolous Five’s version (slightly off key I believe)

caution falling fragments

Chicken Little didn’t warn anyone of falling fragments. Around here and at a number of other blogs, fragments fall on Fridays. Now Mrs. 4444 does not actually catch the fragments (Chicken Little, the folk story about mass hysteria, never caught a piece of sky either). She does collect the links to these fragments at her blog.

(warning worst segue ever) Thinking of chicken reminds of KFC and the Colonel (he had a great hair style). You might not know that he was never a military Colonel (oh and Cap’n Crunch was not a Captain). He belonged to the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. A Kentucky Colonel is appointed by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This group of Kentucky Colonels actually do more than drink mint juleps at the derby. It’s charitable group. In my quick research I was surprised to find Whoopi Goldberg and Wayne Newton among the famous Kentucky Colonels.

The KFC pictured below is located at the site of Colonel Sanders' original restaurant in Corbin KY. I have stopped and eaten there on my travels through Kentucky. It's not much of a museum but if you like KFC, it's more interesting than most KFC's.

picture from Wikipedia page about the Colonel

Pass the hot sauce and let’s move on. I have a question for you.

Do you think a proclivity of an slightly odd behavior could be a genetic trait?

Check out the following three pictures. The first two (from 2012) shows yours truly modeling as I have been known to often do, next to a fake animal. The last picture of my 2+ granddaughter was taken just this week. She asked her mom to take a picture of her next to the “hippo”. She’s good with animal identification and noises but sorta blew the id of that one.  I found it strange that we share this fondness for large fake animals.

taken by my sister in Oklahoma

same place different animal

Buffalo girl (oh did you notice the snow?)

Recent comment by Lisleman:

runway model or runaway model - never know these days with so much autocorrect.

funny pic (by chief_huddleston)

This past week Mrs. 4444 offered tips in a post  on how to avoid internet picture stealing.  While checking out one of her search tips I found the above picture (see I included attribution).  This winter my yard is overflowing with unassembled snowmen.

(please note Lisleman did NOT receive any extra crispy chicken tenders for this or any other posts. However, I will gladly accept KFC gift cards.)

Fragment Recovery Agent reporting

Being a James Bond movie fan I was very pleased that Nita photoshopped an FRA badge for me and dropped it in last week’s Friday Fragment comment section. In the spy series, 007’s boss was ‘M’ (recently played by Judi Dench). Following the idea of using numbers for agents and letters for the administration, I suggest Mrs. 4444 could go with ‘B’ or ‘F’ (maybe ‘Q’ for quad fours). Obviously, if she takes a number we know what it would be. I would be glad to be agent 007.

I doubt my FRA assignment comes with a fast car but maybe a fast web app should be developed for all agents. You don’t need to assigned an agent to join in the fun of the fragment post. Be sure to visit Mrs. 4444’s collection.

Have any of you been following this BitCoin story? Hopefully, none of you owned any BitCoins since you probably lost money. The BitCoin idea deserves more than a fragment so I might post about it. I find the whole concept simultaneously interesting and strange. How a currency could be created without being based on anything and without regulation baffles me. BitCoin trouble has hit the business news like a Miley twerk session.

sweetbread vs. sweet bread - who knew? Not me.
She-who-knows was reading the food/lifestyle/section-I-skip section of the newspaper this morning and started a discussion of sweetbread. I became somewhat discombobulate (doesn’t take much) by her talk of sweetbread. For more decades than I care to count, I had blissfully lived not knowing the definition of sweetbread. Not that I ever thought about it much. If I had been offered before today, some sweetbread my tongue would have expected a sweet tasting bread like Hawaiian King bread. Biting into the thymus or the pancreas of a calf or lamb would be a big shock to my brain.

not sweet bread

sign of times - smartphone domination - idiots on internet? This past week brought us not only twitter and selfies as starring roles at the Oscars show but at Mardi Gras we had millennials shouting, 

“show us your tweets!”

 

Mardi Gras reminds me of a post I spotted this week. Fellow Friday Fragment poster, Madame Gumbeaux of Honduras Gumbo posted the background of a favorite song of mine. Iko Iko

Another Lisleman comment -

I live in the burbs, the land of superstores and yet we have a neighbor who still gets milk/dairy delivered to her house. Also slightly different but it seems related, is the internet grocery delivery services. Maybe the milkman is coming back on a smartphone app??

Having no concept of time, at times can be useful. That does and doesn't make sense at the same time. Thanks for spending a bit of time here.

lets have a fragment party

Nothing like a great party.  If it’s not at your own house there is no mess. A Friday Fragment party in blogland has no mess either. Mrs. 4444's blog is hosting a collection of FF postings - join the parties.

I still haven’t found what I’m blogging for - that was a post the other day. Many of you may recall my song parody proclivity (could be the first time I’ve written proclivity on my blog). The post was not a parody but the post started me thinking about doing one on that U2 song. I have the beginning of it -

(great intro music) I have climbed out of bed
I have run to the bathroom …

But I still haven’t found what I should write. Any suggestions?

“....according to people with knowledge of the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.” - I hate it when that lame excuse for a source is given in a news report. If they are not authorized to speak publicly and the reporter is going to publish their words then what is going on? These reports should start using the word speculation more.

I don’t need to tell most of you how much children change during the first years of their lives. I have a granddaughter who just turned two. Such a difference from when she turned one. I caught a funny picture of her sitting with her cousin (less than a year apart). Don’t they look like a couple waiting for their dinner order? Actually they were waiting for the cake.

This FDA idea of banning transfat in foods might become a problem. Didn’t our founding fathers give us the right to eat transfats with our bare arms or something like that? I’m thinking the donut party will be forming any minute now. They can’t take our donuts/cookies/fries away from us. There’s going to be cream filling in the streets.

kitchen crisis

Hot Jupiter, what a bacon busting day!

The microwave died. At first we (wife was punching the buttons at the time) thought the circuit breaker flipped. I scrambled down to the breaker box and found all breakers looked ok. Time for crisis management. Do you agree the microwave is the top appliance in a kitchen? I would be cruising crackers with my only hope being a cold sandwich without the microwave. Oh, the hunger pain from the many leftovers dying a slow death in the fridge.

A quick switching around of different small appliances into the socket used by the microwave determined that the microwave had loss the power to run. The will to heat. Just a blank dark space where the inaccurate time had just moments ago beamed for all to see.

not our old microwave

I sensed my wife didn’t share my sorrow. I might have heard her say something about more counter space. Not the time to discuss counter arrangements. There are leftovers waiting nearby. Our microwave is old and rules one corner of the counter with its electric energy.

Have you had the experience of traveling to a hotel equipped with a microwave or maybe a relative’s home and then were forced to use unfamiliar controls to just heat your morning buns? Oh the thought of learning the nuances of another control panel was frightening.

Mark Twain would have loved a microwave

After operating our faithful microwave for years I had learned that quickly punching the one minute button twice would produce two minutes and I didn’t even need to punch start. I could get a two minute heating session initiated with just two button pushes.

I quickly descended into my workspace with the old microwave. I have never named things like cars or appliances so I can only write old microwave. I took a screwdriver to it. After flipping it around I managed to remove the cover. Inside the cover was its electrical schematic (a design birth certificate with symbols). I followed the circuit and discovered a fuse. The fuse tested open (bad).

Next it was off to a nearby appliance parts store. This was a high amp fuse so I didn’t bother looking for it at a hardware store. I returned with a fuse transplant and hand inserted it. Screwed on the cover and gave it a quick test of warming about half a cup of water. It powered up and heated the water. Success! But I needed to perform a comprehensive test.

The old microwave has rewarded us with many a hot bag of popcorn. Popcorn is a microwave delight. I decided to do the popcorn test. Could it still power through a popcorn bag bake? It did.

However there was a problem. Mostly burnt popcorn while using the preset popcorn button. There had been the rare burnt popcorn bag in the past so I thought maybe it was just a bad bag. After thinking about running another popcorn test I realized something more than a new fuse was different during that first test. The glass plate that slowing turns the food had been taken out so that I could flip the box around to disassemble it.

Could the plate be the difference between hot vs. burnt popcorn? Another popcorn test was set-up and run. Total success! I have a theory to explain the need for the special glass plate but its technical and only a theory. More importantly the kitchen crisis was over in a matter of a few hours, a new fuse and two bags of popcorn.