Category Archives: General

Administrative, General, Popular Culture

SoCal Adventures

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OK, not adventures exactly.

I know that posting has been light. I’ve been doing hard-core actual work out here, with little time to post. But I have to relate the following story.

It’s amazing how you (or, well…me) can live somewhere for decades, and never notice a place in the neighborhood. OK, not exactly in the neighborhood, but not more than three miles from it. For the last many years we lived in Redondo, Patricia and I were always looking for good breakfast places in the South Bay. While looking for one on my own before work in Torrance, I noticed yesterday morning, for the first time ever, that there was actually a Norm’s Restaurant on the west side of Hawthorne, just north of 190th.

So I went in to check it out.

The waiter had an expensive “tricked-out name tag” that said (well, strongly implied) that his name was Ismael. I had to resist two impulses.

The first was to say, “So, can I call you Ismael?” Hardy har har.

I resisted because either a) he wouldn’t have gotten the literary reference, so he would either say “Sure, it’s my name, why not?” (leaving me feeling as foolish as I should) or b) he would get it, and say, “Yes. Please do so. I’ve never heard that one before. Well, not more than 83,436 times. Doing so will leave my sides bleeding and my spleen on open display at the continuing hilarity.” Which would also go over like the proverbial depleted-uranium blimp. Many would have done so, either because they didn’t anticipate these two almost certain responses, or because making lame jokes and being the life of the Norm’s party was more important to them than these consequences.

I also considered asking him if he had a sister named “Isfemael.” But I had only just given him my order. He hadn’t gone into the kitchen yet. One never knows what happens in the kitchen. The possibilities are endless, and disgusting.

As it turned out, they had great corned-beef hash with eggs.

General, Technology and Society

Hornet Down?

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I’m hearing that an FA-18 crashed into a neighborhood in San Diego, near Miramar (the former location of the Navy’s “Top Gun” school), with an ejected pilot. If so, that’s very unusual. Pilots usually do what they can to make sure that the plane doesn’t hurt anyone on the ground before ejecting (if they eject).

[Update a few minutes later]

For those without access to radio/television, here’s a live thread tracking it over at Free Republic. It doesn’t sound good–several houses are reported to be burning. Let’s hope that no one was home.

General, Science And Society

News I Can Use

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Sort of.

I had my eyes checked last week (for the first time in three or four years) and discovered that I’m color blind. Sort of. It’s minor enough that it’s never been an issue from a functional standpoint, apparently, and this is the first time that I’ve ever had this problem diagnosed. I went on line to check out some of the tests to confirm it, and I do show up as red-green color blind, but only mildly. That is, I can sometimes make out the things that normal sighted are supposed to see, but some of them just barely very dim, and I can see some (but not all) of the numbers that true red-green color blind people aren’t supposed to at all. On the ones that have one number for normal, and a different one for color-blind, I see the color-blind one more clearly, but I can actually see both. And I’ve never had any trouble distinguishing red from green traffic lights (which would be the biggest problem, I would think, though fully color-blind people know from position). When I look at the pictures that show what the world looks like to normal and deficient eyes, I can very clearly see the vivid red dress as red, whereas it should be more of a greenish color if I were fully color blind. I wonder what this page looks like to someone with no red receptors? Are both pictures the same? And it makes me wonder what the red dress would look like to someone with normal vision (something I’ve never wondered before, because I’ve always thought I had normal vision).

So, the question is, have I always had this borderline condition, and it’s only become apparent now, or was I much better in my youth (I never failed a test as a kid) and have deteriorated a lot with mileage? I’m guessing that maybe I was always borderline, but far enough over the border toward normal earlier that I always passed the test, not realizing that I could have been seeing the numbers more clearly had my color sight been better, and perhaps with age, I’ve drifted into a region where I don’t fully pass any more, but am still a long way from being unable to distinguish red from green.

Anyway, the opthalmologist recommended a follow-up visit to a neuro-opthalmologist, just to make sure that there wasn’t something else going on (just as a precaution, because it’s unlikely that it’s caused by anything serious).

General, Political Commentary

Thanks

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I suppose, since I have a shiny new blog, that I should say something for the occasion.  Both first, and trivially, I’m thankful that we live in a country that has competing blog software providers, and particularly that they are free of charge (though, in the case of MT, I’ve gotten a lot less than I paid for over the past several months).

I’m thankful that, at least so far, an Obama administration hasn’t lived up to his campaign promises.  I wonder if he had told the voters that he would a) support Joe Lieberman, b) put in a set of centrist economic advisors, c) go soft on his promise to “raise taxes on the rich,” d) keep George Bush’s Defense Secretary for at least another year, etc., whether he would have had a chance of winning the Democrat nomination.  But I guess that what running left for the nomination, and to the center for the election, is all about.

I’m also grateful that, while I missed out on the economic boom of the last few years, paradoxically, as the ecoonomy has gone in the toilet this fall, I’m actually doing very well financially since last summer, with good prospects for continuing to do so.  And I have my health, which as time goes on, become ever more precious.

I’m also grateful to my readers, devoted and otherwise, who keep coming back to read my blather. I hope that you all have much for which to be grateful as well, and have a happy holiday, and more to come.

My LA friend (from Florida) Bill Whittle has some further Thanksgiving thoughts, and gratitude, for a friend who died recently.

General, Popular Culture

A Golden Oldie Thanksgiving Recipe

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Since I’ve been recycling lately, here’s a post from three years ago on my unique turkey dressing recipe. That one got spammed up, but I’ll repeat it here, if anyone wants to comment.

I don’t know if there’s a Carnival of the Recipes for Thanksgiving, but in response to popular demand [cue sounds of crickets chirping], here’s my unique recipe for corn-bread and wild-rice stuffing. It’s higher protein than most.

  • A couple pounds of sausage (I prefer some kind of fancy chicken or turkey sausage–this year I found some chicken/brocolli)
  • wild rice (maybe half a cup)
  • pine nuts (maybe half a cup)
  • a pound or so of exotic mushrooms (oyster, chanterelle, shiitake, etc.)
  • one onion, chopped
  • a few cloves of garlic, diced
  • a few cups of corn bread crumbs, either home made or store-bought stuffing
  • a few stalks of celery (if desired–I don’t like it that much, but some people think it’s not
  • stuffing without it), chopped
  • pomegranate seeds (this is the secret ingredient)
  • a couple cups of chicken broth (from bouillion is fine, unless you want to be fancy)
  • salt, pepper, sage, thyme to taste
  • olive oil

Soak the rice overnight in about twice as much water as it needs to cover. Another good thing to do ahead, while watching teevee, is to divest the pomegranate from its seeds (persnickety work).

In the morning, cut up the sausage into bite-size chunks, and saute in the olive oil (amount depending on the stickiness of your saute pan). Chop the rest of the ingredients and boil the rice for fifteen minutes or so (if you overdo it, it won’t have the crunchiness). Set the meat aside and saute the onions, celery and garlic in the same pan.

Put all the non-liquid ingredients in a big bowl and stir well. Add in the broth and mix thoroughly. If it seems too dry, feel free to add as much water…or booze…as you want. It should be moist throughout, but not soaked. You can also add melted butter to taste and texture if you like that sort of thing, and your arteries can take it. Another option, to be more heart healthy, is to fatten it up with olive or canola oil.

Use it like any other stuffing–either inside the bird, or under the skin, or just bake it in its own dish, or all of the above.

Eat, and enjoy.

Oh, and on this Thanksgiving Eve, let us all bow our heads and give remembrance to the woman who invented Stove Top Stuffing™, who has stuffed her last stove top.

If anyone tries it, or variations, feedback will be appreciated.

General, General Science, Science And Society

Due For Disaster

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This article is about the potential for a great quake in San Francisco, but the problem is actually much more widespread. LA is vulnerable as well, though not, as popular imagination has it, from the San Andreas fault, which is quite a distance away. Of much more concern (particularly to me, as a property owner in the South Bay) is the Newport-Inglewood fault, which comes within a few miles of my house. That’s the fault that ruptured in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, and a seven on it would be much worse than an eight on the San Andreas, because it runs right through the LA metro area.

The Northwest is also in danger–there could be a magnitude nine in the Seattle area at almost any time. Of course, the greatest danger is in those areas that get quakes so rarely that they’re in no way prepared for them, such as the east coast. There’s still a lot of unreinforced masonry there that will come tumbling down in the event of a significant temblor, and they’re not unheard of.

Of course, in Florida, I live in one of the most seismically inactive places in the country. I can put all kinds of things on top of other things here that I’d never consider doing in California. Instead, we have to watch the weather for hurricanes half the year.