What's for lunch?

Man, I could go for a really good BLT today. Too bad the tomatoes are all still green. The lettuce is awesome, and I cooked some bacon the other day so I have cooked bacon in the freezer. Waitin' on the 'maters.

My Garden

Hey, ya know those pictures of dirt I posted before? The ones I said were my garden? Well check it out NOW! Yeah, THAT's what I'm talkin' about!

Ivory Carpet Rose






Red Razz Rose















Tomatoes






Pumpkins









Lettuce








cukes, pumpkins, watermelon, strawberries









corn in the back, peas on left, pumpkins on right with cukes and lettuce in between







Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.......GOOD!

An Octopus's Garden

I'm beginning to think that's what I've created. It seems I have stuff sprouting all over. Wow! It looks like great success! It looks like I have a green thumb. It looks like ... like I have a LOT of work ahead of me.

Okay, so I've got several varieties of tomatoes (who knew there could be so many? You say tomato, I say heirloom or hybrid?), a couple of varieties of corn, three kinds of peas (again, who knew?), lettuces, onions, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins (if the early leaves are any indication, Charlie Brown better get ready to bring it!), watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, and roses. Oh, flowers and plants galore! Red roses, pink roses, white roses and wildflowers and ornamental grasses, phlox, verbana, red flowers, blue flowers, pink flowers (florus pinkus?). A LOT of vegetation on my tiny plot of terra firma.

Here are pix of what the garden looked like a week after I got everything planted/transplanted. I started most of it from seeds, except the roses, phlox, and berry bushes. In a day or two I'll post pix of what it looks like now, three weeks later. If I can hack my way through it to get close enough for pix! Just kidding.

Anyway, enjoy. And if you need some salad fixin's....

Cavs in Eastern Conference Finals

Back to Blogging. I don't know why I keep stopping but, it is what it is. I think that's one of my new favorite sayings. It's a little profound, a little zen, a little smart-assy.

Anyway, had a great day today. Took a couple of the neighbor kids down to FanFest down by the Q before the Cavs game. The Q being Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavs being the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was kind of disappointing. At one point I wondered if this was the same kind of FanFest they have at other teams' venues, or if it was lame because it was Cleveland. I know it was basketball related, but they could have had more fun things for the kids to do than just shooting hoops. Shooting hoops at different height baskets where even a six year old can dunk and get some rim time - pretty cool. Shooting out-of-round stuffed toy basketballs at a mini hoop attached to a spinning wheel - not so cool. Shooting an out-of-round stuffed basketball at lowered hoops with a slingshot - meh.

Plus, they advertised food and drink, but there was none. The events were held in a small raised park area between the Q (AKA Gund Arena) and Progressive Field (AKA The Jake). The grassy area was bordered by one of those fat cement walls that can also serve as seating. Unfortunately, there was no handicap access onto the grassy area. That kinda sucked. On the other hand, because the area around the grassy area was sloped, the cement wall was short enough at one end that it was not much higher than stair height. So I could get up there with the kids.

I was kinda hoping they might have tix available to the game, since they do release some game day tix. I waited in line for about a half hour while the kids were playing and sure enough! There were tix available. For a minimum price of $143 for the normally $25 seats. Yeah, thanks but no thanks. So we left early and stopped at Sam's club and bought some burgers and dogs and stuff and had our own "concession" while watching the game on the front lawn.

Man, these basketball and hockey playoffs have been great this year. Cavs had their first playoff loss of the year on Wednesday after a long layoff while the Celts played their hearts out and took the Magic to seven games. So the Magic were more in playoff mode for the first game at the Cavs. It was a close game but I think the Cavs were out of competition mode. Tonight (last night?) Cavs had a good lead, then the lead changed a few times but the Magic looked like they were going to take it after a pretty good comeback. They tied it up and then went ahead by two after the Cavs fouled them with one second left. Yes, one second. Play started with about 13 seconds left and for some reason the Cavs didn't foul the Magic til the clock ran down to 1 second. So the Magic guy shoots two free throws and they go up by 2. Cavs call time out, so they can inbound at their own end. 1 second left. ONE SECOND LEFT. The inbound pass goes to LeBron. Yeah. You better believe it. Runaroundalittlecatchtheballandshootthethree. Shoot the three. He shot the three. HE SHOT THE THREE!!!!AT THE BUZZER!!! Cavs win by one. Yeah, I think they're back. They don't call him the king for nuthin'.

BTW, the Celts were un....believable taking the Magic to seven games. I'd hoped they'd eke it out past the Bulls, but didn't think they'd get past five with the Bulls. Too bad for the late injuries or they could have repeated. But, GO CAVS!!!

Can a dog be "prejudiced"?

What a ridiculous comment, this, made by "Tamar Geller, a California-based celebrity dog "life coach" who trained Oprah Winfrey's puppies..."

""the dog has to be very well mannered. We need to make sure that the dog is not afraid of loud noises because he may hear loud arguments in the Oval Office, and he mustn't be afraid of people with beards and turbans and so on because he is going to meet a lot of foreign dignitaries." "

This is from an article on the BBC website about the Obamas' choice for a new dog for their girls. Maybe this woman should stick to "coaching" celebrity dogs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7714480.stm

And another thing

What about the audacity of the Republican Party to think it can hide all the newly exposed problems it had with the Palin candidacy? How dare they think they can foist such an ignorant, ill-prepared candidate on the American people? And to think it almost came to fruition. We almost got suckered into allowing this attempt at deception to succeed. How close we came to falling for this Trojan Horse of a candidacy.

We haven't seen a candidate this unqualified for the position since Dan Quayle. And at least his problems were more a difficulty with performing on a public stage rather than an a lack of intelligence or understanding. Dan Quayle is a successful and honorable man in the private sector who was unable to survive scrutiny without melting under the glare of an international spotlight. Sarah Palin is an idiot.

Yes, an idiot. And her "handlers" are not exactly living at the top of the intelligence food chain, either. I hope the leaders of the Republican Party can find a way to purge their party of the infighters and manipulators who are so willing to sell us (Americans) out for their own benefit. The strategy was very short-sighted in that, had it succeeded, the gains would have been short-lived. Obviously the involved parties were bursting at the seams to tell their sordid stories about Palin's inadequacies or rogue courage, depending on which side you believe.

The ends in this case do not justify the means. The potential damage that the American people would have suffered had this charade continued is almost beyond imagination. It could have pushed us over the edge at a time when we are teetering on a precipice of crises both foreign and domestic, ideological and economic; it could very well have undermined our faith in ourselves and others' faith in us; it could have led us beyond a tipping point of self destruction.

As a lifelong Democrat and a student of political economy, I understand the nature of politics. I understand the dirty, behind the scenes "strategery" and the absolute focus on getting one's candidate elected, one's agenda passed. What I don't understand is the Republicans' seeming willingness to pass off on the American people a person so lacking in qualifications, so unwilling to compromise and work within the boundaries of the campaign, so completely and utterly at odds with the concepts of reason, loyalty, responsible behavior, and conscientious citizenship as Sarah Palin appears now to be.

Sure, we questioned the choice. We questioned her abilities, her intelligence, her character. And we were denied the truth. And now the truth is being exposed, at the very least to the detriment of the Republican Part but also to the detriment of the American people.

I only hope that now Sarah Palin will return to Alaska and perhaps reconsider her governorship, consider the damage she has done to the Republican Party and to Alaskans' standing in the eyes of their countrymen. Perhaps she can use her VP candidacy as a stepping stone to a career in the private sector where her influence and actions will be limited, where she can no longer impose her narrow-minded policies on the public, where her inability to understand or engage in ethical behavior will not be rewarded. I hope that, as a people, we have heard the last of Sarah Palin and she will become but a footnote in American history, having no real impact on our reputation as a country or damage to our standing in the world-wide community.

Hey Sarah!
See ya. Wouldn't want to BE ya!

What ARE they thinking?

I don’t understand this new Republican strategy. All the new stories coming out about Sarah Palin, her lack of understanding of basic geography, her inability to toe the line, the alleged “disappearance” of thousands of dollars worth of clothing paid for by the RNC…

The people leaking these reports, supposedly high level workers in the McCain/Palin campaign, are being very shortsighted in their bickering, or at least in airing their dirty laundry. It seems the McCain supporters and those from the Palin team are trying to outdo each other by exposing the dirty little secrets and behind-the-scene bickering between the two camps. I shudder to think about how much more divisive the Republican Party can become. It appears to be self destructing before our unbelieving eyes and we, as Americans, may all suffer collateral damage.

It is so tempting to join in, with the easy “Foreign Policy for Dummies” jokes, “How to Lose Friends and Turn Away Voters” lecture series, the limitless opportunities to satirize the implosion of the Grand Old Party. It’s like watching a carefully constructed house of cards come tumbling down at the slightest whisper; the total destruction of an elaborate dominoes landscape, constructed over countless months and days and hours of absolute devotion, strategic planning, single-minded focus, being detonated prematurely by one rogue domino. It is almost unbelievable. Almost, but not quite.

Do these folks really have a clue about the damage they are doing not only to their own candidates, their own party, but to the rest of America as well, as their inane caterwauling is heard around the globe, showing the world that not only are the United States not showing a united front, one party’s incessant squabbling is threatening to tear us apart from the inside out.

The Republican Party is acting like a wild animal intent on self-preservation by eating its own, devouring Sarah Palin piece by piece, limb by limb.

The contest is over, folks. The Republican Party has lost the same as the Democratic Party lost the last two Presidential elections. Heal from it. Together. Grow from it. Together. Take a little time to lick your wounds, but come together as a party and begin the necessary work of restoring the faith of your party members, of developing a strategy to fight for your causes and beliefs rather than against each other. Focus on what we need to do, as Americans, to get through our current economic crisis, to regain the respect and admiration from other nations we once held dearly, to repair the rifts between us and our allies, and get us back on track so we can continue to be the leader of the free world, the role model for democracy and the ability to achieve one’s dreams through hard work, to live free in thought and spirit.

Let the healing begin.

Think your vote doesn't count?

So this guy in Ohio is a candidate trying to retain his seat on the local Democratic board and it's a tight race. The guy has two sons who are of voting age. One son lives across the street from his parents, one son is a college student living at home. With his parents. With his mom and the dad who is running for re-election.

So the dad's race ends in a tie, 43 votes for him, 43 votes for the woman running against him. The winner was to be determined by a coin toss. The man lost the coin toss, so now he loses his seat.

Oh, yeah. The two sons? They "forgot" to vote.

A Momentuous Occasions for ALL Americans

As I sat last night crying with gratitude for the incredible sights I was seeing, the words I was hearing, the release I felt, I thought how incredibly proud I am to be a white American in an era when a black man can, IS!, elected to take office as the next President of these United States. I am proud and, yes, a little more than relieved, that we have turned the tides and fulfilled the dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy, James Meredith, Rosa Parks, four young girls attending church in Alabama, three young men working for CORE in Mississippi, the millions of unheralded who have stood up to racism, stood up for each other, stood up for their beliefs and dreams, the thousands who have suffered, died, been imprisoned for those beliefs.

We cannot deny that what we have now, this great and unequaled country, was built on the backs of slaves from Africa, indentured servants from Ireland, Chinese railroad workers, Mexican day laborers, and at the expense of the lives and lands of Native Americans. We cannot deny that as a group, whites have benefited from the color of their skin and the power, earned or assumed, associated with that. And now, maybe, hopefully, we have begun to heal, we have begun to come together, we are building a community of Americans that is all-inclusive and so is non-exclusive.

I am proud to be an American. I always have been, since I was a child and began to understand what it means to be American. But for the first time, I can say I am proud to be a white American, part of a generation, part of a new world order, an all-encompassing, united new order of Americans leading the world in acceptance and understanding of different peoples, cultures, and ideologies that can work together for the benefit of ALL. I can see the melting pot that we have always called ourselves finally becoming a delicious stew with multitudes of flavors, colors, textures all working together and feeding the world.

I selfishly celebrate the election of Barack Obama to be our new President because it relieves me of some of the guilt I have felt, the embarrassment of the behaviors of others of my race, the anguish at how divided my beloved country could be. I selfishly celebrate that we can now truly be one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Now we get down to the nitty gritty and the hard work of building on this momentous occasion so no more black Americans need to feel disenfranchised, no more white Americans need to feel the burden of guilt, no more immigrants need to feel unwanted and unwelcome. Get to doing the hard work of uniting our own people so we can then turn to our duties and responsibilities, as leaders of the free world, to help other peoples in places around the globe experience the freedoms we oft take for granted. We can become what we were meant to be. We can become what we WANT to be. We can become the UNITED States of America.

So I was watching a McCain rally

on one of the cable news stations, doesn't matter which one, and it occurred to me that all the folks behind him chanting USA didn't really get what he was saying. He was criticizing Obama's "share the wealth" comment he made to SammyJoe the plumber, about how taxes would decrease for those making less than $250K and increase for those making more. Most of the folks in the crowd were dressed like they were farmers or blue collar workers, or low- to mid-level management. These are the folks who would BENEFIT from Obama's plan, and yet they are rejecting it with all the fervor of the crowd at a Texas/Oklahoma, Ohio State/Michigan, ND/BC football game. (you can insert your own favorite rivalry - mine is the Red Sox and anybody playing them in the ALCS)

If only people would THINK before making a choice. If only people would examine the issues and really understand how things work, especially the economy. A lot of Americans are in dire straights now. Could you imagine what it would be like now if Bush had privatized Social Security? This is like an exponential Enron collapse.

Please. People, THINK!!!!! If you agree with Obama's plan, vote for Obama. If you agree with McCain's plan, vote for McCain. But please THINK about and KNOW what the plans mean for you before deciding.

Change Walkin' to Bloggin'

I'M WALKIN
Fats Domino

I'm walkin, yes indeed and I'm talkin bout you and me
I'm hopin that you'll come back to me, uh uh

I'm lonely as I can be, I'm waitin for your company
I'm hopin that you'll come back to me.

Reminder to self

If you're gonna spend the time writin' anything interesting, do it in Word first, then copy and paste to the blog.
touchpad
For some reason, when I type on my laptop, my cursor mysteriously chnages where the type is inserted, so my post looks like a jumbled up, cryptic ransom note. I'm sure it has something to do with me being a little heavy handed on the keyboard, or accidentally hitting some magic button secretly embedded near the

How ironic, it just did it on touchpad. No I did NOT do that on purpose. Honestly. it drives me friggin' nuts!

Oh yeah, and I'm constantly spelling words with the letter a ttransposed with whatever letong.
ter is supposed to precede it. And I constantly spell beleive wr

Geez, did it again. How did the ong. get up in the middle of the word letter?

That's supposed to say I constantly spell the letter beleived wrong. still comes out beleive. I know it's believe but it

Dammit! see how frustrating this can be?

Anybody have any ideas on why this happens -the cursor thing, not the spelling, as I'm sure that's just poor typing. Is there a solution. Is there hope for me?

Do Not Call List

I just switched back to my old phone/cable/internet provider and got a new phone number. Then I went out of town for a few days. I hadn't even given this phone number out to anybody yet. When I got back there were 11 messages on my machine and I've had two calls already today! I gotta get this number registered.

Red Sox Nation News

Speakin’ about the Red Sox…well, if you weren’t, you SHOULD be! They really know how to keep things hoppin’!

Wow! Manny to the Dodgers. Manny being Manny in LA? What’s so exciting about that? There are a lot of Mannys in LA, and I’m not talking about the lawn guys. Manny is not going to stand out in Lala Land. More likely he’ll fit right in with the rest of the divas. But we’re gonna miss him. And his leettle friend too. Yup. He’s takin’ that bat with him. I sure hope the new guy knows what he’s in for. Maybe he should have talked to JD Drew before agreeing to the trade. Or Eric Gagne.

On second thought, let’s leave Gagne out of this. We don’t want to jinx poor Jason Bay before he plays his first game!

I guess we olde timers have to accept that it’s a whole new ballgame and we’ll just have to live without Manny. That probably won’t be so hard. We managed to survive losing Nomar. Who is now reunited with Manny. And playing for Joe Torre! Who ever saw THAT coming?

Anyway, for all you Sox fans out there, do me a favor and take a minute to let your voice be heard and vote for me for Governor of Ohio, the birthplace of aviation and one of the member states of Red Sox Nation. Just click here
http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/fan_forum/rsn_gov_support_form.jsp
. Again and again and…vote up to ten times. Please. Thanks.

Oh, and speakin’ of Ohio, the Reds gave up Ken Griffey, Jr. Now there’s a class act. A great player who’s fought his way back time and again from injury, the antithesis of Manny. I hope he does well in Chicago, but unfortunately he’s now in the AL so I hope he does well enough to make the playoffs but that’s about it. Just like wine, I like my Sox Red, not White. Well, I would if I liked wine.

Check out Liz's Blog

Click on the title of this post or use the links to your right to see what Liz is workin' on!

Welcome Back Kotter...I mean Blogger

So I thought I’d re-enter the land of the blog. When I got back here I was reminded of Cousin Jen’s blog, so I went to check it out. Jen’s still fighting the good fight…and winning! Anytime you think you’ve got a problem, go read Jen’s Blog and learn how to deal with life and whatever it throws at you.

Introducing the new and improved complete spray food post

I was looking through the USA Today site and saw an article about spray-on foods. The writer led with info on new spray-on salad dressings that would help people control how much dressing they get on their salads. I guess that's for people challenged by the basic shake-and-pour method that, until now, has stood the test of time. Will spray-on-foods now be known as the best thing since sliced bread?

I'm a little queasy about all these new fangled ways of food delivery hitting the market. Why can't we just eat food? Real food? I understand some of the science and theory behind bioengineering food to make it possible to grow just about anything just about anywhere, but sometimes I question what it's all going to come to. And now they're talking like we're gonna just be spritzing a few different bottles of food into our mouths and that's dinner.

Imagine what life would be like then. Already families don't eat together as often as they used to. And more and more people are eating in their cars. I can just see it now. A fast-food drive-thru of the future would be similar to today's automatic car washes. Just punch in the code for an appetizer, another for an entree, and maybe a dessert. Hey, why not? It's low-cal! Then wave your debit card, cuz now we don't even have to swipe them anymore. I guess that takes way too much time. You know, cuz you have to fit the card in the swiper slot rather than just pulling it out of your pocket and aiming it at the reader. (Wow, what am I gonna do with all that free time? What exactly can you do in a few hundred nanoseconds, anyway?) So just open the windows and pull into the bay and let Jiffy Food do the rest. Gives new meaning to Applebee's Carside-to-go.

Holiday celebrations would be a little different, too. Some people (like those at the Jones Soda Company) have already jumped on that bandwagon. We don't have to gather 'round the dinner table on Thanksgiving, risking missing the kickoff of the traditional Thanksgiving Day football game. Instead, we can gather 'round the wide screen plasma TV and pass around a six pack of dinner, complete from soup to nuts. You can start with the appetizers. I dare you to kick off your gathering with a splash of smoked salmon pate. (Pretend there’s one of those thingies over the e in pate. You know, so it sounds French. I don’t know how to do that on the computer and, frankly, it’d just be a waste of my time to come to each and every one of you to draw one on your screen. No offense, but it’s just not worth it. Use your imagination!) Follow with the entree (you know the drill with the e thingy) and garnish and end with a little Thanksgiving pie.

The liquid holiday dinner is especially great for the ladies, more and more of whom are becoming avid sports fans. Now, instead of six hours of food preparation, a fifteen minute dinner, and three hours of dishwashing, the gals can just relax with the guys and watch their favorite quarterbacks and tight ends battle it out on the gridiron. As long as they don’t show up in a pink “official” Tom Brady uniform. Not even Tailgating Barbie should wear that stuff.

So, back to the spray-on flavorings. According to the article, there are “more than 150 spray on foods [in] the market” with different purposes. Let’s take them point-by-point, shall we?

•Sprays that add flavor. Flavor Spray, a no-calorie spray targeted at dieters who crave flavor

Uh, isn’t that what gum is for?

•Sprays that disguise flavor. Can't get the kids to eat their vegetables? …[try the new] candy-flavored sprays … as a way to get kids to eat those veggies.

Great. Just what we need. Cotton candy flavored brussel sprouts. Yeah, that’ll be a big hit. To the bottom lines of the cotton candy sellers of America. Let’s face it. The spray-on is only going to add flavor to the brussel sprouts, not change it. So it’s still going to look like and have the texture of a brussel sprout, but with a hint of pink or blue sugar. And since it’s low cal it won’t be real sugar. It will be the artificial kind. Yeah, that’d be a move in the right direction, healthwise.

So the kids will come to associate the idea of cotton candy with the disgusting vegetables they were forced to eat (or drink!) at Sunday dinner. What kid is gonna want to rip a big, fluffy hunk of cotton candy off a paper cone, knowing it’s now going to taste like a brussel sprout? That’s unfair to the kiddies. What’s a visit to the carny without cotton candy? There oughta be a law. Just like there oughta be a law against Easter baskets without Peeps.

•Sprays going organic. This summer, ConAgra's Pam cooking spray will introduce two organic varieties that will sell for 50 cents more than conventional Pam.

Well, of course it’s going to cost more. Healthy food always does. You can buy a twelve pack of Twinkies for less than the cost of a bunch of asparagus. And I’m not sure how eager the American public is for organic oil. I mean, technically, oil is organic, but I just can’t imagine spraying organic WD-40 on my cake pans. “Excuse me, waiter? Could you ask the chef to use the summer weight oil on my vegetables? I really don’t like to use anything heavier than a 10W-20 oil before Labor Day.” And I hear there’ll be a new offering from Ocean Spray. It literally is “ocean spray.” This will not only benefit the spray-on food industry, as well as dieters who can’t grasp the concept of sprinkling the salt on their spray-butter-covered corn-on-the-cob, but it will boost the Discovery Channel’s revenues as well. Now they can add the sea-spray-salt season to their Deadliest Catch series. It won’t be nearly as exciting as opilio crab season on the Bering Sea during an Arctic freeze, but watching fishermen trolling for sea water could be more exciting than you think. The up-to-700-hundred-pound-pots they use to catch their quarry are made of steel and netting. The salt water would mostly sluice right through the netting, resulting in low catch rates, which could cause intense drama on the high seas. I see high Nielsen ratings for this one.

•Sprays for pets. Then, there's Gourmet Spray. It targets pet owners whose pets have lost interest in kibble. The $4.99 spray — in pork, beef and seafood — makes dry pet food smell "good enough to eat

Oh, Lordy. Wait ‘til PETA gets a hold of this. They’re gonna have a field day. Spray-on flavoring for pets?

Oh, wait. I get it now. It’s spray-on flavoring for pet food, not for pets! Ha! Haha! My bad. Nevermind.

Anyway, back to spray foods and football…at least now the Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger will be able to drink the same foods his teammates will be eating at training camp. For the NFL-challenged among you, Big Ben holds the distinction of being the youngest NFL quarterback ever to lead his team to victory in the Super Bowl, having won Super Bowl XL with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ben recently had a run-in on his motorcycle with a little old lady who drove her car through a left hand turn as Roethlisberger rode through the intersection. Been there, had that done to me. It’s not pretty. Of course, if Ben had used half the sense he was born with, he would have worn a full-face helmet and walked away from his motorcycle accident with a few cuts and contusions instead of a new bionic face. Seriously. If you wear a helmet and facemask on the football field to protect your noggin, what makes you think you can go speeding along on a motorcycle with no head/face protection and walk away unscathed? I speak from experience. Wear a helmet. Doofus.

I AM AN IDIOT

Okay. It's been awhile since I last posted. I won't bore you with the details now. That's for another day, heh-heh-heh. I was going to add another post to the blog today. Really I was! It was good, too. But I forgot one cardinal rule, one promise I had made to myself. Write it in Word and then cut and paste it into the blog "create a post" window. So I get all the way through the post and decide to double check it. You know, for spelling and grammar and all that other stuff a Catholic school education makes one so anal about. About which one is so anal. About which one becomes anal. Ah, fuggedaboudit. You know what I mean. Check it so it makes some kind of sense. Of course just because it makes sense to me doesn't necessarily mean it will make sense to you. So what's the point in checking it?

Anyway, what I did was double check a hyperlink I had added. There are -were- actually several links in that post. I'll try and recreate them when I recreate the post. I guess I was just in a hyperlink kind of mood. So I clicked on the hyperlink...without saving the post as a draft. I can't believe I friggin' did that. Again! Actually I can believe it but sometimes I like to pretend I don't have ADD and do stupid unthinking things like that. But that's for another post, too.

Well, just to tantalize you, here's what was saved from that post. I'll work on it maybe later today, cuz I know once you get a "taste" of it you won't want to wait to see how it ends. I promise I'll get it out before the week ends.

Here's what was saved...

TITLE
Okay, I'm going to try and do a better job of keeping this blog up to date. I'm not making any promises but I will try!

POST
Anyway, I was looking through the USA Today site and saw an article on spray-on foods. They led with info on new spray-on salad dressings that would help people control how much dressing they get on their salads. I guess that's for people challenged by the basic shake-and-pour method that, until now, has stood the test of time. Will spray-on-foods now be known as the best thing sinced sliced bread?

I'm a little queasy about all these new fangled ways of food delivery hitting the market. Why can't we just eat food? Real food? I understand some of the science and theory behind bioengineering food to make it possible to grow just about anything just about anywhere, but sometimes I question what it's all going to come to. And now they're talking like we're gonna just be spritzing a few different bottles of food into our mouths and that's dinner.

Imagine what life would be like then. Already families don't eat together as often as they used to.And more and more people are eating in their cars. I can just see it now. A fast-food drive-thru of the future would be similar to today's automatic car washes. Just punch in the code for an appetizer, another for an entree, and maybe a dessert. Hey, why not? It's low-cal! Then wave your debit card, cuz now we don't even have to swipe them anymore. I guess that takes way too much time. You know, cuz you have to fit the card in the swiper slot rather than just pulling it out of your pocket and aiming it at the reader. (Wow, what am I gonna do with all that free time? What exactly can you do in a few hundred nonoseconds, anyway?) So just open the windows and pull into the bay and let Jiffy Food do the rest. Gives new meaning to Applebee's Carside-to-go.

Holiday celebrations would be a little different, too. Some people (like those at the Jones Soda Company) have already jumped on that bandwagon. We don't have to gather 'round the dinner table on Thanksgiving, ris

Practicing the art of digression

So for some reason my mind wandered back last night to a meeting of my Political Economy of Racism class, which I just happened to be taking in September of 2001. The teacher was (is) an American woman of Afghani and Pakistani descent. Members of the class included me, the old(er) white lady, and my groupmates, a young, first-generation American woman whose parents emigrated here from Pakistan – she was doing her semester abroad type of deal only her home school was Clark University in Worcester, about forty-five minutes away - and two young women from Smith College are extremely well-read and typical of the bright, questioning, civically (is that a word? because I was going to say politically but that doesn’t seem to cover anything outside, well, politics) involved students who attend colleges like Smith and Berkeley and yes, even UMass. The rest of the class were students from UMass, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, and Hampshire Colleges. I must say it was one of the most diverse groups I’ve ever had the pleasure of being involved in. Many of the “kids” were international students representing the Caribbean, Brazil, Niger, Kenya, Poland, and southeast Asia. Some were from red states – like I said, a diverse group.

Anyway, this class was held in the aftermath of 9/11, which made it an interesting time to be learning about, and with, this type of multi-cultural group. Sure, we covered the effects of racism in America, especially the effects of slavery and the civil rights movement, typical standard fare in an American class on racism. But we also discussed religious persecution as a form of racism, and the effects of religion on culture, values, and interactions. While we were delving into the relationships and conflicts between the Israelis and the Palestinians, a question popped into my head that was so basic, so simple, I couldn’t help but ask it. Why can’t these groups find some kind of neutral ground? Both sides lay claim to the same Holy Ground. The instructor’s first reaction was incredulousness at my having asked such a stupid question. Didn’t I get it that ownership of the Holy Ground was what the fuss was all about? Well, sure. I get that part. And yes, I understood that people have been trying to devise a peaceful solution. But if you go beyond the simplicity of the question and take it seriously, it ended up being a good jumping-off point for a discussion. What I really was wondering was much more than “Can’t we all just get along.” What the real question was, and continues to be, at least for me, is why can’t people accept and respect the beliefs held by others? Why can’t the Israelis see that the Palestinians are no more amenable to giving up their hold on the Holy Land than the Israelis? Why can’t the Palestinians see that the Israelis have an equal right to worship and honor their Holy Land?

Part of the problem, I suppose, is that most religions teach that theirs is the one True religion. That theirs is the one True God. All the Jews are taught that the Catholics are wrong in their beliefs. The Sunnis are taught that they are more faithful than the Shiites. The Catholics are so cocksure about their beliefs they barely teach from the Bible. (Disclaimer, I was raised Catholic and did - spent - twelve years in Catholic schools.) The so-called Christian Coalition members are taught that the Scriptures are to be followed to the letter, unless, of course, it creates an inconvenience, and then it’s a matter of interpretation.

Another problem is that religious fanatics can become so overzealous that they can’t allow for different opinions or beliefs. Some are so intent on following the one True path they don’t, can’t, or won’t recognize that the path to religious freedom is actually more like an interstate, with many roads leading to the same “place.” You can get there from here. It just takes a little guidance, kind of like a righteous GPS system.

But that analogy introduces another question. Science and technology versus religion. There’s a lot of dissidence about whether schools should teach creationism or evolution in the classroom. That’s an interesting problem. I’m not sure there’s a solution. Not an easy one, at any rate. Creationism is a theory upon which many religions are based. We all know the basic premise, that there is ONE GOD who created the world and everything, animal-vegetable-mineral, in it. Now we have scientific evidence that the Big Bang Theory and evolution played a greater part in the development of this planet and all the creatures on it. This is where faith comes up against cosmology. Cosmology being the study of the origins of life as we know it. Not that stuff you learn at the local beauty school.

I have very little background in cosmology, but I understand the basics of it and the theory of evolution. It makes sense. I also have faith, despite my wanderings from the Church, that there is a god. Maybe not your God. Maybe not just one God. But some higher Being who gives us something, someone, to believe in. I used to wonder how scientists can reconcile their faith, their belief, their religious truth, with their knowledge and understanding, their evidence, their scientific truth. My best answer to that is, That’s the difference between Belief and Faith. One can believe that there was some cataclysmic event that caused the Big Bang, resulting in matter exploding through an infinite space that eventually developed into planets, at least one of which sustains life as we know it. At the same time, one can have faith in Genesis, that God is responsible for, well, everything. Despite the scientific finality of death, one can believe there is a higher purpose, that there is life after death in some form (and I don’t disregard reincarnation). Faith and Belief can co-exist. At least in my life. Of course I also strongly believe in the separation of church and state, despite the fact that, for the most part, man’s law is based on religious doctrine.

I still have a lot of thinking to do about these issues. I’m not looking for a solution to the world’s problems, just a better understanding of them.

Food for thought. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.

Who's minding the children?

Whoooaaa! Wait just a doggone minute here. What’s up with this judge? Is she nuts?

Check out the following story as reported on USAToday.com:

Judge: Man is too short for prison

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — A judge said a 5-foot-1 man convicted of sexually assaulting a child was too small to survive in prison, and gave him 10 years of probation instead.

His crimes deserved a long sentence, District Judge Kristine Cecava said, but she worried that Richard W. Thompson, 50, would be especially imperiled by prison dangers.

"You are a sex offender, and you did it to a child," she said.

But, she said, "That doesn't make you a hunter. You do not fit in that category."

Thompson will be electronically monitored the first four months of his probation, and he was told to never be alone with someone under age 18 or date or live with a woman whose children were under 18. Cecava also ordered Thompson to get rid of his pornography.

He faces 30 days of jail each year of his probation unless he follows its conditions closely.

"I want control of you until I know you have integrated change into your life," the judge told Thompson. "I truly hope that my bet on you being OK out in society is not misplaced."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.”

Why is this judge so concerned for the convicted sex offender’s safety? Don’t prisons have special housing units that separate child molesters -and others who need extra protection- from the general population? Don’t most experts agree that a pedophile is likely to continue to offend when released from prison? But she thinks he can “integrate(d) change into (his) life?” She’s betting on her faith in him not being misplaced. That’ll be small comfort to any children, and their families, he may “offend” in the future. While she’s worried that he may be “especially imperiled by prison dangers,” who is worrying about the children being imperiled by having this guy out on the streets? And she thinks he deserves a long sentence, but only four months of his probation will require electronic monitoring? There’s something wrong here. Maybe a little “prison justice” is what this guy needs to set himself straight. I don’t think making a weekly phone call to a probation officer is going to help him control himself.