One year ago today: October 11, 2019, like, D-minus, guyz.
Five years ago today: October 11, 2015, tickity-boo.
Nine years ago today: October 11, 2011, 10%, and you’re famous.
Random years ago today: October 11, 2007, Joliet, Red Book, & Scuzzy.
It was such a perfect Texas morning, I followed tradition. Turkey meat loaf, from scratch. That’s for real, not the Internet scratch where he calls it home-made because he worked a manual can opener. Here’s the process, laid out bold. It ain’t home cooking unless you see the carrot schredder and the chopped onion. And that’s the topping made from ketchup and oats, waiting to be spread. There were signs it would be a good day from the start. I found that package of French roast coffee, somehow it got stowed with the cereal. And I found the kazoozoo, insert joke here. It was out in the shed in a box of things I took out of the house.
There’s nothing particularly Texas about this recipe, except better ingredients. Organic everything, including the ketchup. The ingredients include heavy cream, but it is not bad diet-wise. Probably 200 calories a slice. Dig in, I’ll put on the coffee. While this was baking, I made another favorite, real deep-dish apple pie. The recipe only, since I don’t have a deep pie dish. Once again, you are looking for proof about home cooking, and here you are.
When you see the cored apples being sliced, that’s the real deal. Again, better ingredients. Instead of mixing brown sugar and white sugar, this is turbinado from the Honduras. A nice mix of cinnamon and nutmeg, and this has a sprinkling of ginger, a favorite of a gal I knew nearly forty years ago. I’ll send her these pictures later. As for the taste test, return this afternoon. There is no salt added to any of my cooking. One ingredient of this pie is salted butter, beware of hidden salt. Otherwise, dig in. There’s lots.
Enjoy while you can, this pie is not an easy chore. Don’t believe the recipes that say twenty minute prep time. It takes fifteen minutes to properly peel and slice the apples. It is also baked in two stages, initially hot, then down to a cooler simmer. And you’ll have to line the crust with tinfoil, which is removed for the last twenty minutes. To the aficionados, I do not serve this with cheese or ice cream. That part you are on your own.
After so many false starts, I am willing to give any musical venture a shot. The most loyal guitarist over the years is Trent, and he is three hours away. However, that does not address the changing technology. I devised the methods of remote practice long before Zoom and the capability I now have to produce videos within five minutes from raw footage. I know he is interested and has said so. I repeat that playing in a band is a part-time job. However, listen closely. There are probably a half-dozen activities people do to relax that together could be combined to create the time. Because if you do it right, it isn’t a job. Right now, add up the time spent going out for a drink, or watching TV, or chasing women. That is more than enough time to learn guitar and gig, and you get paid. There are wild tales of musicians making a fortune in the comeback of the lockdowns and I’m sure Trent has heard them by now. Rumors of $10,000 per month in tips. I’ll believe that when I see it.
So, at his request, I may collaborate to see if, in fact, we could put some material together in virtual form. We’ve played 32 tunes in the past and have gigged out before, which is far closer than most startups ever get. There are no ego issues and the motives are identical. I’ve composed a lengthy e-mail detailing how, if we incorporate some of the newer work-at-home technologies, that I see no obstacles to virtual rehearsals. Plus, I would know the work is being done. The first ten tunes are always easy, so pun intended, stay tuned.
World’s rarest chicken breed.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Deserving a longer break, I researched engine turbochargers, looking for how water injection works. This led me to a documentary on the P-47, a tub-shaped fighter plane of WWII. The explanation of how water boosts power still escapes me, it does not make sense at all. The P-47 was one weird contraption, using a bomber engine but it did not have the range to escort the bombers. I would like to hear the German side of how they shot down so many P-47s. They were certainly aware of the shortcomings. I found that 1,043 of the P-47s were lost, but that includes crashes and category curiously ignored by western war historians, aircraft that are “interned”. I’ll explain this tray of chicken below.
Trump has declassified Russia documents and there is rumor of a copy of Hillary’s deleted e-mails. Things are not shaping up for the radicals. There are hand-written notes by FBI and CIA operatives that confirm they were told to vilify Trump on purpose by Clinton. She deserves the firing squad, but it is unlikely she’ll see prison. She was investigated by the FBI for 27 years and the conclusion was she’s guilty but they can’t prove it. Bullshit, I say, the person taking the notes should have arrested her on the spot. What these people did is, in America anyway, and atrocity. Worse for the FBI is these were the documents ordered release sometime years ago and the agency sat on it.
This could escalate quickly. Trump appointed people to these agencies to find the paperwork and even they were stalled for years. You know, the oldest millennials will be turning 40 this year and I suggest they get ready to apologize to people they called conspiracy theorists. Only a complacent generation or two could allow this stinky situation to arise, my guess is they were too busy cooking up crooked cell phone plans to pay attention to what the hell is going on. The documents suggest widespread cover-ups is other agencies. It should be handled by the same plan I put forward for all civil servants. Fire them all, and start over.
t’s plain they conspired to keep a lid on the records until after the election. That’s putting a lot of eggs in the Clinton-Biden-Harris basket. The problem is Trump cannot charge these people because it is more a criminal than civil matter. That means Barr, the Attorney General, should be pressing charges. But he isn’t, probably for the same reason. He’s hoping if the Democrats get in, they will bury all evidence. This is what Democrats do. What’s the attitude about all this at street level? If Obama and Clinton are not hauled into court, the American people will be outraged. We want to know why these people have not already been arrested. How much more evidence to these prosecutors need?
And, as you see, while the pie was baking, I slipped in a tray of breaded chicken. The wonderful aroma in the house is because earlier, making the meat loaf, I substituted 1/4 of the cream with port wine. Now I have my coffee and I can answer my own recent questions. Why have the arrests not begun? I figure it this way. Trump knew they were covering up effectively. He knows if he had begun any time in the last year, this would have slowed matters even more. This way, he can say the documents were not released as a political move before the election, but put the blame on those doing the shuffling.
If he wins, he can begin a far more systematic purge of liberal moles in the government, this time with total blessing of his electorate. I’m by far not the only one who loves to listen to bleeding heart liberals convulse. If he loses, the Democrats will have an awful stigma to overcome, not that it bothers them. I have always advocated that liberals should be isolated, my never-written novel Planet 107 concerns this issue. If the Democrats win, I see secession of some form, even if it is only economic or financial. Liberal parasites cannot live without a host, but there is not a realist alive who would not enjoy watching them try..
ADDENDUM
Military weapons, that’s my field. And that’s how I know the latest Chinese hardware is all second-hand already. It is stolen US technology and one can never discount the possibility that just like the Chinese infected computer chips sold to us, the same might be the case in reverse. We are still selling F-16s to Taiwan, a strong indication they can hold their own against the latest Communist equipment. But airfields are vulnerable and the reaction time would have to be instant should the mainland implement their “reunification by force” policy.
Taiwan has never declared independence over this issue. That’s how the left works. See, say the ChiComs, they have never seceded because they know if they do, we will invade, whoops, er, we mean, that shows us the majority of people there want to rejoin our great country. But I’m only concerned with the weapons here. These US warplanes are combat tested in Israel and have kill ratios so high nobody is saying. Those airfields are a natural first target the Chicoms could hit with an overwhelming attack of stand-off bomblet missiles. The next step up is the F-35 with VTOL, and it carries, along with bombs and rockets, a $173 million price tag. Or you can pick up just the helmet for around $400,000 each. It lets you see through the aircraft in full color day or night. Yes, it plays Blu-Ray, but make a it short in-flight porn movie since this airplane costs $42,000 per hour in the air. Compared to $3,600 per hour for a pilotless drone doing much the same job, which isn’t that cheap but isn’t going to bother a military who spends $230,000 for each ISIS member killed.
Other airplane hourly costs are the F-16 at $8,200, the Warthog at $5.990, and the navy F-18 weighing in around $10,500. The F-35 airplane is far from ideal. The worst defect is the software is C+. It has been brought down by birds and pilots falling asleep. It has a terrible touch screen relay, which we know from cars reduces situational awareness. You have to look at the panel to touch the right button. In dogfight practice, the F-35s have lost against F-16s. You don’t know about X-band radar, but that’s the one that stealth is supposed to defeat. Great, if they want to avoid Alabama speed traps. But what if some Russian war vet decides to crank up his old Flat Face and thinks, “Что зто эа Փигня?”
