BD Presents

A shot of a couple of gifts I picked up on by BD - a nice and sharp 8" chef's knife and a cast iron skillet.  Mmm!  The knife cuts like a dream - I love it!

Pollster

This blog is hardcore.  Predictions about the presidential elections, complete with highly detailed poll figures.  Bordering on insane.  The link: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

 

 

 

NBA Player Out of Line?

People are bent out of shape about Black professional basketball player Josh Howard remarking how he doesn’t care about the national anthem.  Here’s how I break this down:

 

White western Europeans explore and settle the New World, killing, betraying, and taking land from the “inferior” natural inhabitants.  Then the wealthiest of these white landowners imported “inferior” slave labor from a faraway land to work their farms, treating them in less than hospitable ways, to put things mildly.   After some time they were liberated from bondage, grudgingly given the right to vote, alienated from mainstream society, and marginalized by public policies.  They now experience ongoing underemployment, inferior education and income, and high incarceration rates.  Now, how would you feel about “your” country’s feel-good song if you happen to be Black?

 

Hey, America has some great things, and America has offered some great things to Black American descendants of slaves.  I’m glad we’re all here in this country.  But I don’t think Howard deserves to be lambasted over his hard feelings.  

 

Video report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BqG9kjknVw

 

(Blog Photo Found At: http://www.answers.com/topic/african-american-photography-to-c-1960)

Eat Meat, Keep Your Brain Intact?

Apparently, eating meat helps avoid brain shrinkage!  OMG!!  Eat a cheeseburger, quick! 

 

Just kidding.  Well, not totally.  Research is so easy to overblow, but take a gander at this article that adds fuel to the debate.

 

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24336544-23272,00.html

 

 

Born to Run (and Eat Meat?)

Evidence found by scientists (http://discovermagazine.com/2006/may/tramps-like-us) seems to confirm we were born to run long distances.  It doesn’t define long distances, though.  Long enough to wait for whatever animal we were planning to eat to get tired, is what I understand from the piece.

Cars Escaping from Hurricane Ike

Photo of cars heading from Houston on Highway 290 into Austin the day before Hurricane Ike is scheduled to make landfall.

Soda, Pop, Coke: Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

What do we American’s call carbonated drinks?  This blog post solves it once and for all: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/308-the-pop-vs-soda-map/

 

And if you’re interested, here’s my suggestion on such beverages: Don’t drink it.

 

 

Consolation Prize

I never thought I would be bummed out when receiving $1,000 cash.  However, since our deal to sell our home and then buy another one has fallen through, we will receive $1,000 in earnest money from our former buyers.  But, we have lost the house we shopped endlessly for and for which we ourselves spent $400 inspecting.

 

Reversible Raincoat

Great, short article on a speaking technique commonly used in the political arena these days: The Reversible Raincoat.

 

Slate.com describes it like this: “…the nickname speechwriters have given to the rhetorical device in which words are repeated in transposed order, as with Churchill's famous line: "Let us preach what we practice—let us practice what we preach.")”

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2199536/

 

Chef's Story

Just finished reading this book about 27 chefs and how they got into cooking.  These chefs are all at the top of the field: Anthony Bourdain, Jaques Pepin, Bobby Flay, etc.  Many have copies of their most successful restaurants in Las Vegas, many have TV shows.

 

The common themes in the stories: lots of hard work, long hours, and personal connections that helped them progress.  Kinda like real life. 

New Mexico

We went to Albuquerque and Santa Fe Labor Day weekend. Beautiful weather (dry, low 80s during the day), beautiful scenery (mountains, clouds, huge skies), and beautiful architecture (adobe style) were all in abundance.

Birthday

Patty made a key lime pie for my birthday. Yum!

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In home selling/buying news, our sale is on tenuous ground and hence so is our purchase. We are waiting for word from our buyers to tell us if this deal is going to go down.

Living Dangerously

No, I don't smoke.

Photo taken in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Ear Wax

Don’t take out your ear wax. 

 

Read article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26443394/

 

That’s all.