Great Aces

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What?

That dude is German.

It's a very good photo. Good as the Che Guevara one any day. Menacing. Excellent pilot. Killed a whole bunch of us good guys. Yes, he was an ace. An enemy ace.

Manfred Von Richthofen. The full photo shows a broad black scarf over a leather flight jacket, with a bit fat iron cross in the middle. 

The link goes to Great Power War with descriptions of aces in a click-through format. So there's that if you're interested. 

But I'd like to talk about something else.

The Ace Von Richthofen's uncle built a castle in Denver modeled on the original Richthofen castle built in Germany. 

And it's ugly as hell.

Big. Thick. Clunky throughout. Even the sunroom is is big, thick and clunky.

It's a thing with mansions built in that period. They're overstuffed with rugs, sofas, chairs, and furniture, intrusive large lighting, huge lamps and chandeliers, large plants, paintings in thick frames, tapestries, statues, shelves, layered fabrics, textured wall paper, taxidermy, armor, weapons, vases, curios, such that very large rooms are actually crowded. The walls are thick and cold. The glass is wavy. The beams are heavy. The coffered ceilings are crap. All remodeling makes everything worse. 

I adjusted the mid tone of these photos. They're all too dark to see anything. 

Imagine your dog running circles through these rooms. Poor thing would bang into furniture.

I'm exaggerating, okay? I'm trying to make a point over here.

If you had $3.75 million to spend on a house, any run of the mill modern McMansion would be better than this. As an empty shell, it's way too thick and clunky. 

The photo doesn't show exactly how crap the ceiling is in this bedroom. Nor does the photo of the sun room show how incredibly heavy the exposed wooden ceiling supports are. The room allows more light than usual, but there is nothing airy about the space. It's like a bit more glass than seen in a State prison. And the plants all died from failure to photosynthesize.

I should have picked worse photos. Because the place really is worse. Here, the photographer is too good at cropping the truth. 

One page I read the writer said he grew up near this house and he was convinced vampires lived there. It is the site of a famous murder. 

Here's what I mean. See all that junk on the steps? 

They had a thing about cluttering their front steps. Molly Brown did this same thing to her house a few blocks away from where I live now. 

And the cement Roman and Egyptian statues, Grecian plaques, and various vases and planters are truly deplorable, especially when taken together all crammed into such a tight space.

I hung out on this porch for awhile talking to some dude about other places to visit. I didn't care to go in because they wouldn't allow my camera.

So I went to the carriage house in the back, large as a rather large home, and turned into a gift shop, and I must say, it's the best gift shop I've seen apart from the one at the Museum of Natural History for all the insane scientific stuff that it has for kids, and the hidden gift shop at the base of Dinosaur Ridge with all its fantastic dinosaur-related things for kids including shoes, and pith helmets, 3-D lenticular pictures of dinosaurs and such, combined with genuine fossils. 

Speaking of lions on the sides of front steps, one of my grandmother's neighbors in Bethlehem Pennsylvania had such lions at her entrance. I loved those two lions. I loved pretending to ride them. I was in kindergarten back then, it was natural to climb on and ride them. They didn't move, but giddy-up anyway. Come on, move! Doot-dodo-doot dodo-doot dodo-doot dodo-doot. 

We didn't go anywhere, but oh my god, the glory of riding a cement lion is amazing. But I had no appreciation of how filthy those things are. I'd come home literally covered in dirt from head to toe from hugging a filthy cement lion and pretending to ride it. When you've got cement lions out front you really must hose those things off. 

Newt Gingrich corrects CBS for citing Washington Post as a serious source

That sounded interesting, but I was instantly reminded why it's no use to even bother anymore. Give them five seconds and they'll cram a full hour of horse doo into your ears.

I'm not exaggerating. They've got their act down.

The headline at NewsBusters says "dismantles" not "corrects" but headlines are usually hyperbole. The video is over there.

Don't watch it. It can only annoy you. Plus you can "dismantle" CBS crew as well as anyone else. Whatever nonsense they deliver their viewers, you have your own torrent of overwhelming responses. But with no real purpose of ever rallying such facts just to counter idiotic CBS nonsense as Newt Gingrich does. We're never having any such discussion. We're never even watching them. They're brought to our attention by other means. And I had to click over to receive the abuse.

I have no idea who these people are. I've successfully ignored them.

Norah O'Donnell and co-host John Dickerson. I think. *poof* the names disappear. They are irrelevant.

Norah repeats the lazy reporting that Trump lies now accumulate to over 10,000. Someone at the Washington Post is counting every little thing they don't like then marking that up as a lie then the rest of intellectually lazy media cites that careless hateful figure as common received wisdom.

Gingrich: They're not a good source.

Woman: Oh, come on.

Then the man, whoever he is, gleefully repeats Mitt Romney saying that he is appalled by Trump's behavior.

Gingrich: Romney is a Trump Hater.

Man: But he's a Republican.

AAAaaarrrrggghhhh *click*

Why did I expect to hear Gingrich "dismantling" CBS crew just because that's what is in the headline, without also a full dose of obnoxious liberal dopes doing the only thing possible for them to do -- sounding like my sister at age twelve? The reason I resolutely avoid them. I blame myself. It couldn't have possibly been anything else. I would like to hear what Newt Gingrich says sensibly and calmly just for the fun of it, but I must have the obnoxious idiots that go with it. I know better. Yet I gave them 5 seconds.

Drop down to comments for the antidote, the refreshing effervescence that clears out the poison. The incredibly vapid poison that doesn't even harm you, it only annoys.

Comments are actually quite funny. These people have media nailed. Recommended. Sample:

* If Trump cured cancer media would say he only did it to cure white people and he stole the idea from a black gay trans woman that is dying because of him.

   ** Text on picture. Trump cures cancer / protestors with signs, "Trump hates doctors," "Curing cancer is racist," "We have the right to die from cancer," "We want our cancer back,"  "Don' ... tak ... awa ... my ... canc. " Democrats are outraged!

   ** Or they'd say that finding the cure for cancer was trending when Obama was president so Obama gets the credit.

* ... or they'd spend a lot of time reporting on the plight of the newly unemployed oncologist and their staffs. Also the necessary downsizing a hospital would take should cancer become cured.

   ** What will those poor employees of the American Cancer Society do for a living now?

* Text on Picture: In the news today, President Trump told CBS News he ate bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning. But our sources inside the White House told us he had ham and eggs.

Every time this lazy lie-number comes up, 100 each day, then 400, then 800, then 1,000, now 10,000 total, I silently ask, "is there a particular lie that sticks in your craw? Something similar to "if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor," or "we will bring down the cost of healthcare by $2,000 per family?" Because so far nobody citing the current lie-number bothers identifying a single lie. Just the number. They're too lazy to read the list that they cite. If they did, then they'd see it's all nonsense. Another reason why Washington Post is not a serious source.

That's the difference. Conservatives know exactly which specific lies they hold against the Obama administration, and who developed those lies, Johnathan Gruber relying on "the stupidity of the American voter," but Liberal news readers do not. I've yet to hear them defend what they consider a main lie by Trump on this mysterious list so often cited. But then, I wouldn't know. I don't give them the time listening. If I did then I'd only be annoyed even further.

Morel mushroom hunting.

Ew, let's draw one.  

Three colors to draw a morel.

The guy said, "honeycomb" but we know what he means. A pattern with holes, something that sets off a person with trypophobia. 

See, this could be handy the next time you want to make a fantasy forest pop-up card with snails having a war with slugs hurling salt at each other by way of feudal weapons like trebuchets. With mice living in mushroom houses and snakes and owls hunting the mice. I guarantee you a thing like that will be a big hit with the little kids at your sister's church. Best to make it sturdy. So it holds up to their grubby little mitts.

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Rarest tomato ever, Giant Crimson

Crimson means red, right?

What's so rare about that?

Psych!

Judging by YouTube videos, we gardener types are a little bit overly excitable.

There is something in the word "giant" that caused me to expect a very large tomato and then he comes out with this pygmy. What a buzz kill.

When he talks about his seeds, I appreciate what he is doing. He has an excellent online shop. He's a biz wax major in college, same as myself, but he's running his seed business as a vanity project and he's done a great job of it, and I appreciate that. I suppose he'll add these seeds to his collection at migardener.  Let's see. He has twenty tomato seeds types at $1.00 a package, and they all look fantastic, and some of them look very red, but not Giant Crimson. Yet.

Commenters say that he always puts more seeds in the packages than advertised.

Other commenters to other nationally known seed outfit sites say things like, "The package said 20 seeds but there were only 18." For various reasons given, that mattered.

Actually, I don't know what to do with extra seeds. Plant them, of course. Give them away. Rare Seeds always sends an extra package of something not ordered. Instead of buying everything at once, I placed separate orders as I visualized them growing outside, and that resulted in half a ton of free seeds of strange plants that I have no intention of planting. Chocolate mint, Thai basil, Russian black tomatoes, weird little squashes, things I don't want. My planters are specific, not willy-nilly. Although, the whole thing is an extended experiment.

Model dies on the runway

First, what do you imagine the guy is going to say? You're going to look for "catwalk" and someone walking along it. Probably walking along his arm. Look for "dead," one of my favorite signs. Did he die right there on the catwalk or runway? Does a helicopter come? An ambulance? Will we see EMT or flashing lights? A gurney?

Look for surprises, contradictions, to what you expect.

Oh. It's a dude. Right off, a surprise.

The fashion world torqued gentleman model dead freak accident strange.

Name T A L E S S O A R E S  those people out there know T A L E S C O T T A 

It happened Paulo fashion week Brazil. Catwalk walking along fell. 

People observing gaped thinking acting part of the show stayed observer mode. People organized moved in took him hospital died there. Cause death not know. Management says never mentioned health issues kept strict vegetarian diet. 

Appalachian biscuits and gravy

Bless.

Any kind of fat. Lard, shortening, margarine. Did she mention bacon fat? Is butter against Appalachian rules?

Self-rising flour is regular flour with baking powder and salt added. 

That's why she didn't add salt to the biscuit batter.

Baking powder is baking soda and some kind of dry acid like cream of tartar, sometimes two kinds of powder acid. So baking powder acts on its own when it's combined with some kind of liquid.

Baking soda requires an acid to activate it for a grade school volcano effect. Any acid will do. Lactic acid, citric acid, citrus acid, any vinegar works as well. 

Both of these things, baking powder and baking soda taste terrible. The more you use then the worse something gets.

Buttermilk is additional acid. So, there is a double dose of acid to activate the self-rising flour. This affects its efficiency.

I never understood why people buy it. Because now that whole sack of self-rising flour can be used only for things such as this. When you already have baking powder and baking soda on hand. Best to stick with the elementals and avoid things that are premixed for convenience. 

For the same reasoning that pancake mix doesn't make sense. It's just flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Possibly buttermilk powder. And you already have those elements. With an egg, you can mix your batter however you like. 

The biscuits could be fortified with an egg and so can the gravy.

It doesn't have to be so plain-Jane. This meal is for children.  

And the parents are children themselves. I enjoyed listening them make this video together. They're made for each other. What we hear is children raising children and that really is how God intended, and that's why we bless them, only very young people have the energy for this. Children like these will wear old people right the f out. 

On the contrary, have you noticed how people raised by their grandparents are generally a little bit more calm? 

Similar to how children raised by parents who have already trained dogs are generally more well behaved. Their children respond to directions immediately. I noticed that at the training facility and at obedience trials. 

Trainers teach their dogs to react to the first command.  They don't say "Spot sit. Spot sit, Spot sit. I said, sit. Spot, I said sit. Spot, goddamnit I SAID SIT" Rather, the dog is corrected for not responding to the first command and they learn to pay attention. (Belgians do not do this. I swear. It's awesome. They want to do your bidding. They want to work with you. They're actually eager to follow your directions. Your correction is in not praising them immediately with positive feedback. It kills them not to be praised. They must be trained differently from other dogs. They're way sensitive. It can be something so subtle as whisper "good girl" or touching the tip of their ear. But don't do that and they just die of apprehension  and failure. They'll do anything to get back to "good girl.") 

My sister would go, "Boys, hold it down a bit." They ignore her. "I said, Boys, you're being too noisy." They ignore her. "Boys, I said, knock it off." They ignore her. Finally she raises her voice to 150 decibels and screams "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" And finally they get the message she means it. 

She trained them to ignore her until she raises her voice. 

Incidentally, her boys turned out lovely. She was a young person, a child herself in the eyes of God, raising young children, as His plan, the plan of Nature, however you choose to look at it. Best to be young for that kind of energy devoted to raising children with full sustained attention for at least eighteen years.

And children like plain food. 

Or else she could jazz up her gravy with an entire panty of flavor ingredients. 

* soy sauce

* Worcestershire sauce

* liquid smoke

* bitters

* wine, fortified wine, sake, brandy, beer

* coffee

* the full range of herbs

* spices, nutmeg would be very good

* chiles or chile powder, any kind at all

* sour cream, crème fraîche

* any kind of cheese

* egg

* tomato paste

* fruit juice such as pineapple

* cherries

* corn. 

* come on, go through your pantry and see what you've got.

What does she use? Milk. 

Because they are children.

Supreme Court historic 9-0 decision

The case is about government applying excessive fines, fees and forfeitures. It takes the narrator 45 seconds to get to that.

The court ruled that Constitution's Eighth Amendment applies to the states. A man named Tyson Timbs fought the seizure of his SUV all the way to the Supreme Court. He sold $225 worth of heroin to undercover police twice and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to a year of home confinement and five years probation and ordered to pay $1,200 in fees and court costs. Then Indiana took the $42,000 Land Rover he was driving at the time of arrest. (Not purchased with drug money)

More details about the case at Daily Signal.

Margaret Brennan interviews Brad Parscale

Both are fast talkers. Plus, Parscale anticipates Brennan's questions and jumps his responses without ever uttering a single, um, er, aaaah, there are no time-buying placeholder vocalizations, all answers are immediately available and shot back.

Brennan is harsh. A bit accusatory, But she's usually harsher than this. In a photograph of Pascale standing next to Trump, Pascale is about four to six inches taller. And Trump is taller than most. Compared to her usual style, I think Brennan is being a bit kittenish in Parscale's presence.

Q: Is the president changing his message to match information on his donors, or is his agenda driven by the White House?

A: You're twisting that a little bit. The president sets the policy. These policies are a range of things. 1300 Elm St. could be concerned about immigration while 1305 Elm St could be really concerned about terror policy. That doesn't mean we're changing what the president's message is to them. We're showing the part of the message that's right for them. [target messaging] The president has so many promises that he's kept, so many promises that are on the website Promiseskept.com, people can't just sit there and go through them like Tweekapedia. We take the ones that matter to them and show them based off who they are.

Pascale is smart. For all that he tells, and it is quite a lot, we must assume there is much more, and of greater importance, that he keeps close to his chest. Because why give away secrets to his opponents? His confidence is reassuring. Look closely. Slow down the playback speed and observe Brennan blinking her eyes in Morse code: e'reway ewedscray.

It's fun.

US Army liberates 31,601 prisoners in Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany

In 1945, on this date, April 29th.

More photos, more information.

DachauScrapbook/DachauLiberation

Bonding

This is a show on Netflix about sexual fetishes.

I cannot recommend it for everyone. Too bad because it cracked me up. But I cannot recommend it to any of my brothers and sisters so I cannot recommend it to you.

It's very funny in spots if you're accepting to bizarre sexual impulses and find them funny, if not, then you'll not like this show on grounds of morality. You'll be all, television is nothing but filth.

It's also sensitive in places, to individual psychologies, and to acceptance of unusual sexual desires. The key to the film is honesty about yourself and accepting yourself as yourself and not as some projected image. The film is about how accepting and how open  people already are.

The story is about a young twink who works as a waiter and cannot afford his rent and who would like to become a comedian but is too afraid to go on stage.

A High School friend of his asks him to be her assistant, body guard, gofer, helper in her work as dominatrix.

She is a beautiful young woman, thin at the waist and filled out on top, and she looks awesome in her dominatrix costuming. She shows the young man the ropes of her trade. Literal ropes. As they go on he is drawn in more and more to the nitty-gritty of her work. He is ill prepared and ill suited for the things that she puts him through. This is the basis of much of the humor.

The trouble begins when a man comes in who wants to be ridiculed about his small penis. Originally it is the woman who is to ridicule the man but by being there the twink laughed at the man wanting ridicule and that was a terrible faux pas in that situation. The dominatrix scowled at the twink, both of them dressed up in black leather, the man being ridiculed naked on the table.

"You laughed at me ... I think ... I like it."

Now the situation is reversed. The dominatrix wants the twink to continue ridiculing the man but the twink is way out of his depth. This is not what he signed up for.

"Do it!"

He relies on his comedic wit that makes him want to be a standup comedian. "Uh, okay ....

... Uh, this is the smallest dick I've ever seen ...

... I've seen more meat in a vegan kitchen ...

... Is that Pulitzer? Because it's a Raisin in the Sun ...

... A little bit of Proactiv outta clear that the fuck up.

The Lollipop guild wants to make it an honorary member.

My anorexic friend wants the number of your dietitian.

I've seen bigger dicks in a dyke bar without my contacts in."

[This makes the viewer contrive their own small dick jokes. By viewer, I mean me.]

Oddly, this satisfied the customer well. In this manner the twink becomes more important as such scenes go on, more and more crucial to the activities of the dominatrix.

Because she is honest with the twink he learns more about her real life. More about psychology. While she is still a psychological mess herself in real life meeting genuine men outside the dominatrix scene. The twink is having difficulty dating because he cannot be openly honest with the men that he meets. Although they're honest with each other they are still not fully honest with themselves nor with the world at large. They're both holding back too much to find satisfaction in their larger lives beyond their activities together.

As the episodes go, and there is only the first season, they are forced to face the world at large honestly in order to make any progress toward their personal satisfaction. With comic difficulty the twink opens up to his landlord/roommate and satisfies his landlord/roommate's own perverse sexual desire. He also becomes more open to a man he is dating, and the dominatrix forces herself to be honest with a man in her psychology class whom she has non-dominatrix interest, and to her entire college level psychology class.

The twink realizes this new avenue he's pursuing is now part of who he is. And that his self-identity is rather funny. He puts on a master's leather mask and goes onstage and treats the entire audience as masochists. He takes off the mask while still in leather outfit and simply describes his new life. The audience accepts his bizarre track as honestly confronting the psychological self and as genuine legitimate comedy.

Across episodes along the way the Netflix audience is treated to other bizarre sexual fantasies. To fill out the development of the twink becoming equal partners with the dominatrix. More and more is demanded of him, things he did not sign on for.

A man wants to be peed on but the twink cannot pee in front of anyone else. Earlier in the bathroom he was told to sing Happy Birthday, or some such, ways to think about something else. Pressured in the S/M scene he sings Happy Birthday to satisfy the perversion.

Another man wants to wrestle in penguin costumes.

Another timid man wants to be tickled and his uptight librarian-like wife really wants to punch someone in the face. They're both too tightly wound to do this without help. As their story develops they both get what they deeply want and they settle into a mutually satisfying relationship. But first they must be honest.

A bad incident happens with a wealthy dangerous client in his home that could result in murder causing the twink to perform well beyond anything that he was previously capable of and causes him to insist on equal partnership, which she accepts.

The dominatrix using the manner of mistress busts her professor using psychology to manipulate a vulnerable student, and she kicks him out, exposes him to college administration and takes control of his class in her way. Their assignment is to examine the reason why they are pursuing psychology, they are studying the psychology of psychology, so each student is taxed to expose their own private psychologies to the rest of the class. This takes a lot of uncomfortable introspection and exposure. After shocking her fellow student who is her new interest, in the bathroom with stark honesty about her profession, to break through the block that she had set up for herself for protection, she then shocks the entire class by ripping off her coat to show them her leather dominatrix costume.

She is stunning.

She tells them her story, and it is touching and sensitive. She knows why she is who she is. The class is riveted to her confessions. She slides a chair to the center of the room and asks, "Now. Who wants to be tied up in this chair?"

How rude! How aggressive.

A hand sheepishly goes up. Then another. Then another. Then half the class. Then the entire class wants to be tied up in the chair.

It's very funny to think this could happen.

They all accepted her story. They all are intrigued. They all want to be part of her story. They all want to play the masochist.  She calls the name of her new male interest. "Get the fuck up here. NOW!"

This ends the season.

If you stuck with it this far, then at this point you want the story to continue because now both characters are developed and both finally fully interesting. But it doesn't continue. And that's rather masochist treatment of Netflix audience to offer only one season.

KLEM TV

link

NJ Drivers licence online practice test - How did I do?

While I wasn't driving (10 years) my driver's license expired. I now have a one year permit to drive within which I can attempt to pass the written and the road tests.

Sadly I failed the first time. So, I'm taking my time and studying for the next try.

Here is how I did today.  I had four wrong out of fifty.  (screen caps of the four incorrect ones)

Heathens, ASL

Such a strange and intriguing style. I'm showing this because she's beautiful.

Then I figured something out. 

The strangeness matches the strangeness elsewhere. The odd choices match and that's even more odd. 

To see what I mean, interpret it yourself. How would you say "heathens?" 

There is not a sign for "heathens" so you have to figure something out. You have to define "heathen" with another sign. 

Which word or phrasing would you use? 

Both use "join, finish" or "disjoined or unconnected."

I would use "sinner." 

I think the person in the first video ↑ copied the person in the second video ↓. Because the second is innovative and the first has several slapdash poorly formed signs.

"Slow" is shown the splayed fingers dragged across the back of the opposite hand to the base of the wrist. Some dictionaries show the dragging going further up the arm but not all the way up.  But that manner of signifying "slow" looks too much like the sign for "long" done with one finger going up the arm. I see the word "long" not the word "slow." If they were talking to me I would mistake their meaning.

The first ↑ says "abuse" as if the person is laying down and a boulder comes along and brushes past it. The second ↓ is formed better, a person standing up being pounded.

Here's the thing. I'm slow on the uptake. If you're talking to me, then your signs must be well-formed or I will not get you. My mind is not sufficiently flexible to accept and transform a poorly formed "long" into "slow" or to see "abuse" in a person laying down brushed with a fist instead of standing upright getting pounded. I will not see "dancing" if their feet are not even touching a wall instead of brushing across the floor. I will not hear any specific instrument if you sign "music." You must think of me the receiver, not just yourself the signer. I'm not a f'k'n mindreader.  I'm actually quite slow. Talk to me like I'm retarded.

I will never see "heathens" in "join, finish." Best to spell that if you want me to see "heathens," it is after all the essential word in this song. It is the title.

Why am I seeing "magic?" ↑ (My brother did this to me in a public bathroom, washing our hands together. He sprayed my face with water from his wet hands. I felt his magic pow right in my face. He kept blowing my mind all the time. I eagerly wanted his magic.)

"Half" one over two. Do you see that anywhere?

"Half the abuse," one over two, one pounded with a fist. That's what I must see to understand. Because I'm retarded. Anything that's not clearly that, I will not understand. She does this ↓.

It's not a case of you getting through the song with your unique style, it's a case of you getting across to me with clearly formed textbook signs and phrasing. Anything short of that is fail in my comprehension. You must be clear.

"know" and "don't know" look like "salute."

Both these girls are beautiful and quite good but they are not clear. To me.

"Room full of people" Room, a square made with 2 "r" boink boink, packed tight with double shaking "p" shapes. Do you see that? Or, did you see "fill" a cup shape with a flat hand showing it's filled?

All my friends are heathens, take it slow
Wait for them to ask you who you know
Please don't make any sudden moves
You don't know the half of the abuse
All my friends are heathens, take it slow
Wait for them to ask you who you know
Please don't make any sudden moves
You don't know the half of the abuse

Welcome to the room of people
Who have rooms of people that they loved one day
Docked away
Just because we check the guns at the door
Doesn't mean our brains will change from hand grenades
You're loving on the psychopath sitting next to you
You're loving on the murderer sitting next to you
You'll think, "How'd I get here, sitting next to you?"
But after all I've said, please don't forget

Chicken Marsala

If he doesn't have you going around talking with an Italian accent then something has happened to your childish sense of play. What happened? Did it die? Did you outgrow it? Is it locked in a closet? Did you smother it with a pillow? 

You are going around talking with an Italian accent? What's wrong with you, got a  Peter Pan complex or something? 

You could do this with one pan. 

Just keep taking stuff out and build up crud in the pan.

And you could add pearl onions. 

Or any other vegetable that you like. 

And you could use a roux instead of a flour slurry to build up flavors as chefs like to do, and have the flour thoroughly cooked on direct heat instead of through liquid. 

See, he added flour already to the chicken and fried it so that should be sufficient to slough off and thicken the sauce, but it wasn't enough. So now with the slurry he's got a goopy kind of thickener with no fried-on Maillard built up layered composite (cancer-causing) flavors to it. Then all that crap stuck to the non-stick pan, the mushrooms, the chicken, the roux, is deglazed with Marsala and hydrated with chicken stock to desired viscosity. Viola! 

I meant to say "wha-la!" One pan. 

Come on, that's funny. I said that to a Caucasian dude with a Latino dude standing next to him who cracked up. I wasn't even talking to him. Which cracked me up back because it's French not Spanish. I wasn't expecting anyone to appreciate my silliness. But he did.

And so did the other Spanish speaking guy at the same place. They were selling sausage with the word "lingua" in its name and I asked him if it has tongue in it. Because that seemed really weird. He looked at me strangely then said, "No. It does not contain tongue, but you know, I thought the same thing." That makes us kindred spirits, I guess,  in our misinformed language-based curiosity. As children try to figure stuff out.

I-calendar says it's Sunday, so something a bit religious

The dude says, "God" and that's religious.

And Trump cites the Bible to favor Old Testament over New Testament. He listened to Jesus but goes, "nuh, uh."

“May God have mercy for my enemies because I won't.”
-George S. Patton

pic.twitter.com/kwFJYRg1HC

— SayIt⭐️⭐️⭐️OutLoud #TheTrapsHaveBeenSet (@RealTT2020) April 27, 2019

Some Democratic candidates want jailed felons to be allowed to vote

Please Lord never ever ever let these people have any actual power again in this country. I don’t think we will survive it. https://t.co/TSvUPlzSvU

— The OG Hillbilly (@LauraLMonroe33) April 26, 2019

Even Piers Morgan thinks it's "lunacy" to let felons vote.

Literati tree

Bonsai in the Bunjin style. Hermetic monks who copied the style of how pines actually grow.

I sense that you're not interested in this. But I really like this guy, Peter Chan. An odd combination of Asian and British, he manages to avoid the typical rhotic speech impediment that characterizes  British English speakers and instead substitutes his own impediment with "th" phoneme. He cannot say the simplest sound to make. The sound that lispers use to substitute for the "s" sound they cannot make.

I uthed to lithp. Did I tell you thith before?

Here goeth. Thkip if you already heard thith.

One day in kindergarten my teacher thaid, "thay that again."

I athked, "thay what again?"

"What you jutht now thaid."

I thaid, "Here'th thome puthywillowth."

"Thay that again."

"Here'th thome puthywillowth.

"Thay that again."

"Here'th thome puthywillowth.

Thee thaid thankth.

And that wath that for five more yearth.

Until the fifth grade at Narimathu Middle Thchool. The French guy in the quonthet hut thaid "You need thpeech therapy."

And I'm all, what is thith guy a thychopath or what?

Whatever. It got me out of hith clath onth a week.

And there I was thinging "I'm a little teapot thort and thtout. Here'th my handle and here'th my thpout." And the woman taught me two wayth to thay "eth." It depended where you put the tip of your tongue, bent either up or down on the front teeth. It wath very difficult to thwitch to the new way to thay eth. I had to pick a way and thtick with it.

I wondered why didn't anyone mention thith earlier? It could have thpared me yearth of embarrathment.

And decadeth later I wondered why Obama didn't have to go to thpeach therapy. At leatht he wouldn't have thounded tho f'k'n gay.

Care to hear something funny? Mark Levin interviews Trump. It's standard Trump, nothing particularly stupendous. But before that Levin describes some guest on CNN who gets everything wrong legally about what the House is doing in relation to Trump and Trump's response. The guy slobbers his "es" phoneme and Mark Levin imitates him thereafter, and it's so startling hearing a serious speaker discussing a serious matter with exaggerated ridiculing speech impediment that it incapacitates you laughing. And he sticks with the form of ridicule the whole time, never letting up until he's done with the subject, a rather long time.  I never realized the guy is so hilarious.

But here's the thing about why I'm so interested in these bonsai trees. I heard them described as tree torture. There's something morally wrong with taking a fine ordinary tree and handicapping it so sorely just so that you can have a miniature version of a tree that would grow to full size if allowed. To tree huggers, that is a sin. Fixing them with wire, that is wrong.

Then one day I was taken to Yagee Mountain.

I'm not sure I'm spelling the name right. I could check but I don't feel like it.

Yagee was dean of Denver University Law School.

Then his son became dean of Denver University Law School.

The first Yagee made his real money during Prohibition. He defended bootleggers. One of the bootleggers couldn't pay him so instead gave him some land. It happened to be a mountain a bit west of Boulder.

That is where his son built a house.

Lightning struck the house and burned it down.

The son rebuilt on the same spot. Right onto live rock. The rock was actually inside the house. The rock was the floor of the living room and the walls of one the bathrooms. Otherwise a fairly ordinary second home.

It did not sit tippy top of the mountain. It was built on the side near the top. I only met the son Yagee twice, the second time at this house. Truly a fantastic party house. Yagee the son was a very old man at the time. Very close to death, and alcoholic besides. So his party was fairly staid and alcohol-oriented. Nonetheless there was a very large crowd up there that day. He knew a lot of people.

I joined a small group that hiked up a path to the tip of the mountain to an incredibly lovely spot. A little bit further and down on the other side a steady wind blew up the mountain and over it across rock walls. Pine trees took hold in the rock and struggled to grow and I was sitting there on natural grass examining the trees that surrounded me in the wind I realized I was in the middle of some twenty to thirty perfect little bonsai trees in their natural state. I saw with my own eyes where Chinese and Japanese people got this idea of cultivating tiny wind-swept trees, making the best of a sore situation.

I wanted one.

I examined their roots and followed them through the cracks in the rock walls and I realized the trees are part of the rock.They followed along the cracks. The roots were wide as the tree trunk.  It would be impossible to dislodge them without breaking apart the rock walls or cutting the roots severely. The roots creeped along like impossibly long snakes taking the shape of crags. If you managed to dislodge them without damaging the roots, an impossibility, you'd have a tiny tree that tried to grow outward but was whipped backward by continuous harsh wind and stunted to miniaturization with roots that ran for yards in all directions in wild firm shapes strong as the tree trunks and much MUCH larger than the tree itself. There would be no way to reassemble the roots into a bonsai pot. The roots must be destroyed in order to pull out the tree.

But there they were for the taking. A few dozen perfect bonsai specimens of very high quality and outrageous natural design. I resolved to just sit there and admire them. And that's why that scene is fixed in my memory. It was an amazing discovery. A veritable fortune in natural pine bonsai trees.

Coconut coir trough liners

The coconut coir liners for the railing trough planters are too thin and cannot last beyond two seasons max. I think these lasted only one season. They get tattered. And the ends collapse causing water and dirt to pour out of them. The weight of the dirt and water causes them to bulge through the spaces in the metal frames.

The liners are produced as one shape sliced in half like a half of pita bread sandwich but the troughs are flat on one side and rounded on all other sides to make a pocket to be filled with dirt. The actual shape is a bit hard to describe but the ends are like one quarter of a bowl. That's the tricky part. The bulge is why one side of the seam is longer than the other yet when sewn together their lengths match nicely. The long end is making a bulge. Only one seam is necessary on each side for a liner that fits the form of the trough. Fitting well should help them last longer plus the coconut coir on the roll is better thicker quality. It's difficult to cut.

Once the template was arrived at it was used for a prototype made from a paper bag. That proved the fit. So the template would work for the coconut coir.

The coconut coir is surprisingly easy to sew once it is cut. The fishing line threads through upholstery needle quite easily, and the needle passes through two layers of thick coconut coir with no problem at all. I made three of these rather quickly, once the coir was cut by the pattern. Only one more to go.

The potting soil is removed from the old liners and dumped into a large plastic bag that the soil originally came in. The old soil is enhanced with:

1) premium worm castings
2) bio char
3) kelp plant based nutrients
4) rock dust (minerals)
5) humate material
6) high chitlin material
7) high quality compost without animal product.

But no coffee grounds as of yet because I just don't drink much of that crap.

These materials are all in large plastic and triple-layer paper bags.

I wish I could compost around here because I produce a lot of excellent material through the juicer.  Today I threw away peanut shells and despaired, this could go into compost or into a worm farm!

But I don't want to turn myself into a gardening maniac. It's simply not practical for apartment living. I have a certain level of class to maintain around here or else I'll get kicked out and I'd never get laid. Gawl.

This is how tattered the old ones are. I could risk it and stretch it another season but I don't want to. I hate these sodden worn out things. They're shaggy and sloppy.

And their replacement liners will do the same thing. Nothing fits properly. I have to think outside the box.

No wait. I have to think inside the box. I need to improve the liners and I need to improve the potting soil.

President Trump at NRA convention in Indiana

Trump delivers a barn burner. Enjoy this while he is president. You will not see the likes of this again in your lifetime. It is simply unmatchable.

In Trump's prepared speech, not his riffing or asides, he mentions again coup and and overthrow. He characterizes what the bureaucracy did to him as "corruption at the highest level. A disgrace. Spying, surveillance, trying for an overthrow."

He disassociates from the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty that Obama signed in his last days in office.

This treaty threatened your subjugate. And you know exactly what’s going on here. Your rights and your constitutional and international rules and restrictions and regulations. 

Under my administration, we will never surrender American sovereignty to anyone. We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedom. And that is why my administration will never ratify the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty. I hope you’re happy.

He had a message prepared asking the Senate to discontinue the treaty ratification process and return the rejected treaty back to him where he will dispose of it. With the NRA convention as witness he whipped out the portfolio and signed it right there in the convention hall live. Then joked about people wanting the pen. "Can you believe these People? Should I give it to them?"

I had the laptop with me in another room listening while working on a garden project and had to push away from it to allow room for cracking up laughing. God, this man is naturally funny. Honestly, he takes a total drag of a deadly serious subject, foreigners and Democrat administration busting their moves on American sovereignty including our Bill of Rights, and makes it fun and hilarious.

His audience went nuts. Truly, they love this amazing unique president.

His description of patriots that includes an American history tale I had not heard before is touching. Commenters to this video said they went back to it to show their teenage children who listened intently with great interest and took the message to heart.

Apparently, at the 4:00 mark someone threw a cell phone at the president and it took the Secret Service some time to respond. The NRA crowd did not pummel the person. Now people are thinking since it took so long maybe the security team needs to be rotated out. Gatewaypundit.

The introduction is warm, short, and very nice. I skipped past Trump's shoutouts of other people involved with this. (That's why I never know who anyone is.)

Best of all, it pisses off the right people, and does this immediately. He triggers precisely the people most in need of triggering and they waste no time in responding.

More predictable yet consequential stupidity. https://t.co/5aHO5PwSl8

— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) April 26, 2019

Brennan claims he's "absolutely" willing to testify to Congress and that he welcomes an investigation of CIA/FBI activities in lead-up to Russia probe https://t.co/njQGSssqPN via @dailycaller

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) April 26, 2019

I believe we're in for another such rally type speech tomorrow as Trump skips the White House Correspondents Association dinner. He's ordered his staff not to attend it as well. 

I didn't think it possible, but I swear, Trump is getting even better at this. Now he has something to be actually angry about and he appears to be channeling that anger to perfecting his stump speeches. He needs the House to continue his warpath of destruction. Whoever wrote this speech knows Trump as well as Trump knows himself. It's Trump at his hottest. 

As I say, what we're seeing now will never be seen again. Trump is a once in a lifetime phenomenon. All that follows Trump will seem mundane by comparison. 

"It may soon be a crime in Grand Rapids to call the police on people of color 'participating in life'"

Via CNN:

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, it may soon no longer be just unfair to call the police on people of color who have done nothing wrong. It may be downright illegal.

The City Commission held a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed human rights ordinance that would make it a criminal misdemeanor to "racially profile people of color for participating in their lives," the city said in a statement.

The charge could result in up to a $500 fine, according to CNN affiliate WOOD.

"I am appalled that I live in a city I grew up in that has to have an ordinance to tell people not to call the police on people because of the color of their skin," said one citizen at the hearing.

Another said that while the intention is good, the ordinance is redundant given existing laws against discrimination.

The commission will vote on the ordinance sometime after May 14, WOOD reported.

(More at this Link)

"Parrot taken into custody by police in Brazil for trying to warn drug dealers of raid"

Via NBC News

A parrot who warned two alleged drug dealers in Brazil that police were coming was taken into custody after it almost foiled an undercover drug raid, authorities said.

When the green-and-white bird spotted officers Tuesday at its owners' Teresina home, the parrot squawked "Mama, Police!" in Portuguese, according to the local outlet Oliberal.com.

Despite the bird's efforts to tip off the owners, a man and woman were arrested, the outlet reports. Drugs, including crack and marijuana, were also found at the property as well as large amounts of money.

The parrot, who police did not name, has reportedly continued to show its loyalty to its owners and is refusing to sing like a canary. The Guardian reports that a local journalist said the bird won't talk to officers and "hasn't made a sound."

The parrot, who authorities believe was trained to spot police cars, is being kept at a zoo in Teresina, Oliberal.com reports.

District Court Judge indicted for aiding criminal illegal alien escape Federal capture

This is one of those small things that is actually huge. Small because it's just one judge, huge because it's first (that I know of) and it signals willingness to pursue other similar cases. It is a small stone thrown into a swamp with ripples felt throughout the whole nation. Because there are tons of other people, entire cities, doing this same thing.

Judge Shelly Joseph and a court officer are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of a federal proceeding. And perjury. (Testified he didn't know ICE was in the building, the record shows otherwise.)

They helped him escape though a basement door and evade ICE.

“This case is about the rule of law,” said United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. “The allegations in today’s indictment involve obstruction by a sitting judge, that is intentional interference with the enforcement of federal law, and that is a crime. We cannot pick and choose the federal laws we follow, or use our personal views to justify violating the law. Everyone in the justice system – not just judges, but law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and defense counsel – should be held to a higher standard. The people of Massachusetts expect that, just like they expect judges to be fair, impartial and to follow the law themselves.”

A lot more juicy stuff here.

The man is from the Dominican Republic. He was facing drug charges and a fugitive warrant from Pennsylvania for drunken driving.

Drugs and alcohol, the downfall of many an illegal immigrant.

The Highwaymen

This is a film on Netflix that tries to portray the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde more realistically than previous films.

Kevin Costner as retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer and Woody Harrelson as fellow former Texas Ranger Maney Gault are both perfect for their roles. And I mean perfect.

Harrelson is mad as a brush but he sure can act. He plays a recovered alcoholic fallen on hard times. Kevin Costner did better in retirement by marrying well and settling down nicely and comfortably.

Kathy Bates plays Ma Ferguson, Texas governor who had previously shut down the Texas Rangers for their outrageous kill everyone, shoot first and ask questions later ways of conducting their business. Their extralegal means redounded to her political difficulty. So she was resistant to the suggestion of asking Hamer to come out of retirement to take down Bonnie and Clyde because she knew it would mean unrestricted overkill.

Bates nails everything she does. She plays the duplicitous politician perfectly.

The film makes clear that the positive public opinion of Bonnie and Clyde was way out of whack. They were known for robbing banks and spreading around money to the poor, but most of their crimes were small time heists of gas stations and small stores. They killed people for just a few dollars. The population was recently recovering from the depression and banks had foreclosed on their houses, so opinion was weirdly perverted against American institutions of law and justice and for criminals perceived as getting one over and evading capture as Robin Hood type figures. It all seemed like fun.

Viewers see Bonnie and Clyde only briefly and never full body. We see the legs of Bonnie limping across a field (she really had been injured) and we see more of the car. We think, man, that's a really cool car with a running greyhound hood ornament, it must be fancy and expensive, while the rest of it is actually fairly ordinary, but still very nice, a 1934 Ford Delux. The same model car that Hamer's wife drove, except hers was black. They were V-8 engines. While Bonnie and Clyde stole their Ford just a few nights before. The automobile that was shot up actually belonged to somebody else.

Then no Bonnie and Clyde at all through the whole film. They remain the mystically hunted.

Then we see them again at the end in the scenes of them being shot up which are filmed exquisitely. Quick shots back and forth between Hamer on the road and partial shots of Bonnie then Clyde in the car. Then all the agents come out for the big shoot up. There is no return fire. There are no screams. We see Bonnie reach for a gun, and Clyde's shoe slip off the pedal and the car rolls away past Hamer and into the side of the dirt road.

I pause at that point because I like Clyde's shoe.

Turns out to be like .25 second shot. A very difficult frame to get to. We have the same taste in footwear. Except his are smaller. They both were very small people.

My favorite scene is Hamer buying guns and ammunition in a small town store. He nearly buys out the whole shop. He names all sorts of firearms. He's familiar with everything available. The shop owner and his son are amazed that Hamer is buying so much firepower.

"Do you mind me me asking what you're buying all this for?"

     "I don't mind you asking."

Without answering.

Then the shopkeeper and his son are carrying boxes of guns and ammunition back to Hamer's car and the scene is shot from a nearby bench in the shade. Maney Gault is sitting there watching them. Apparently he had been in town and noticed Hamer.

"How'd you know it was me?"

     "By the vehicle being driven so awfully. You know, Frank, you could have stopped in and told me yourself that you chose not to have me with you. Why'd you decide against asking me anyway? "

"Because you move like you're eighty years old."

     "Thank you for your honesty. A little bit too honest, actually."

So, Hamer is very direct and brusk and non-conversational. He doesn't care about hurting people's feelings. Gault is more talkative and more introspective about their past exploits. He's more troubled about what they did and what they're about to do. Hamer tells him to get over himself and questions him why then did he even want to be here.

Both men are depicted as old. Too old to be out doing such things. Hamer lost his touch at shooting bottles and Gault is aged beyond his actual years by alcohol.

They have to interact with locals and interact with proper law enforcement. There is some conflict at first but Hamer and Gault are legend to the younger lawmen familiar with stories about them doing things that the lawmen are prohibited from doing. The younger lawmen join Hamer and Gault regals them with elaborated stories. While hung up on the moral to his own story. The young lawmen hold Hamer in awe and follow his directions explicitly. They do something that they could not ever do without him. They are re-living the glory of the one-time Texas Rangers, they are re-living his mythology, and realizing there is another terrible side to it all. They are living in a time of changes and seeing for themselves and evaluating why those changes are necessary. This whole setup seems very much like crime itself. They are crossing the line in crime busting in the same way the criminals are crossing the line in their crimes. They are outdoing the criminals in crime. They are using the criminals impulse to help a person against them by murdering them, just as the criminals had previously used the gas station attendant's and store clerk's impulses to help people against them by murdering them.

The entire movie is played low key and slowly. The success of the hunt hangs on an insight of Hamer that criminals always return home. He forced the cooperation of a relative in Louisiana who Clyde had helped by buying his house for him. The relative did not want to help Hamer. But Hamer forced him. The man knew the road they would use to return home. Hamer forced the man to participate in the setup by faking a broken down car. This scene was shot on the actual road where the real life encounter happened. And doing that somewhat spooked the actors.

Hannity phone interview with Trump

An interview so entertaining I listened to it twice.

Hannity behaves and resists interrupting Trump. Lots of great stuff that conservatives everywhere have been waiting to hear from Trump. He uses the words "overthrow" and "attempted coup," he promises to declassify the FISA documents that shows them to be bogus, plus a lot more that we haven't talked about. He talks about the coordinated efforts between FBI and DOJ and specific people within them. He indicates his intention to pursue indictments against plotters who abused their power and government positions and misused intelligence through means designed to fight terrorism.

The perfect date

Did someone say sushi?

Sushi Korean style

The video starts level-headed and steadily goes downhill.

Alcohol.

When the man is shopping for fish it is helpful to know:

10,000 won = $8.65
50,000 won = $43.25
50,000,000 won = $55,550.00
32,000 won = $35.55

He says, "When the abalone is infused with the aroma from the alcohol it results in more delicious abalone."

That’s true with everything. And I mean everything.

*squeaky ventriloquist voice* Even cereal?

No! Not cereal. That would be insane.

*squeaky ventriloquist voice* You did say everything.

Everything within reason. Proteins. Fat is a fantastic carrier of flavor but alcohol actually permeates and it adds its own flavor, and although not that great tasting by itself, it does contribute significant flavor to proteins. And that goes for all alcohols from beer to vermouth (wine fortified with botanicals). So if a dish calls for a tablespoon of sake, any alcohol substitution will work even gin or vodka.

Wine and butter. There's just something amazing about that combination.

Soju: [Wikipedia] The liquor licensing laws in the states of California and New York specifically exempt the sale of soju from regulation relating to the sale of other distilled spirits, allowing businesses with a beer/wine license to sell it without requiring the more expensive license required for other distilled spirits. The only stipulation is that the soju must be clearly labeled as such and contain less than 25% alcohol.

This has led to the appearance in the United States of many soju-based equivalents of traditional Western mixed drinks normally based on vodka or similar spirits, such as the soju martini and the soju cosmopolitan. Another consequence is that the manufacturers of similar distilled spirits from other parts of Asia, such as Japanese shōchū, have begun to re-label their products as soju for sale in those regions.

Jinro's American division has partnered with Korean pop star PSY to promote Soju in the U.S., and in 2013 partnered with the Los Angeles Dodgers to sell Soju at its games.

"Heavy drinkers like to get drunk but sake is too weak for them so they don't really like it."

[Sake can kick your butt solidly. These drunks must be freaks. Maybe he means flavor. Even there, I find Sake incredibly strong flavored. So yeah, these guys are freaks. And that's why his business plan is doomed for being devised by a drunk. Drinking friends and business do not mix.]

He mentioned kombujime. Two days ago I couldn't find anything online about this. Now I find loads of stuff. (Jeeze, off by one little vowel and the whole search is ruined) Kombu is kelp, the kind that led to the discovery of MSG and new word used by chefs globally: umami, meaning savory taste, now considered one of the five taste sensations with, sweet, sour, bitter and salt. 

What a racket. The guy made a fortune. (Kikunae Ikeda) And got the world speaking differently about taste. 

Kombujime is method of preservation involving wrapping seafood or vegetable in kombu. I tried this. Apparently didn't do it the right way and used up quite a lot of expensive top grade kombu. (Which I'm drinking right now with bonito as tea. It's actually a soup base, dashi.) 

The stuff this guy makes looks so freaking good.

And now I must now tell you a story to warm your heart.

I feel good

Money

Changes everything.

Oh man. The True Colors video got me watching other Cindy Lauper videos. There are a million of them of her in concert uploaded to YouTube, a thousand of them for this song, but I love this video the best of them all.

Not the best video, but I love it the best.

This was 1984 or 1985, and looking back I'm blown away how raw the energy.

I love this video so much. She comes onstage and kicks around trashcans. Then oddly climbs into one. And is lifted over the audience. They go nuts. This concert was in Houston.

Read through the comments. It makes me a bit sad. That decade was the best.