We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Mrs. BD and I have a disagreement about boats. Maybe readers can offer us some marital help.
She wants a Great Loop boat, a trawler with a couple of staterooms, galley, head, shower, etc. She prefers these Beneteau Swift Trawlers to the Grand Banks trawlers. She wants to do the Great Loop (in bits) but I'd rather do the Appalachian Trail (in pieces, of course) as an adventure, since travel is sort-of out this year. Those big trawlers, I feel, are just too much boat for my comfort and skill (even with bow and stern thrusters). I could learn for sure, but do I want to? In fact, I am more comfortable with sail than power even though most sail has accessory power too.
I've had boats much of my life, and thought I was done with them. Less things to worry about makes me happy. Kayaks are great fun and good exercise, and zero worries. But when it comes to real boats, my preference is for jaunty Downeast-style boats. I can handle them just fine. They are ok for overnights, but not for lengthy cruises.
Except for Blueberries. There is no reason to even think about this topic unless you want to lose weight, or unless the physiology is interesting to you. Fruit is a fine dessert because its main nutritional ingredient is sugars. Especially Fructose. There is nothing "healthy" about fruit or fruit juice.
Fructose is metabolized in a different way than is Glucose.
The very short story is this: All sugars are not created equal. Fructose is metabolized into fat. Glucose in moderate amounts is turned into glycogen for energy. Table sugar is Sucrose, which is metabolized first into its components of Glucose and Fructose.
8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
8:2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;
8:3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.
8:4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one."
8:5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords--
8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
8:7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8:8 "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
8:10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?
8:11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.
8:12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
8:13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.
Following its release Friday, “Fake Woke” soared to #1 on the US iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap Song Sales Chart. It is concurrently up to #2 on the all-genre listing.
I had to write and read a few paragraphs on that topic in middle school. I can't remember what I said but it was probably something optimistic about the "American mythology."
“Nationalism” is now seen as a destructive ideology, next-door to or perhaps cohabitating with “fascism.” Our would-be liberators hold that the Declaration and the Constitution are instruments of tyranny, and that taking them seriously poses a grave threat to the kind of wise, benevolent government that the experts are earnestly trying to “deliver” for us. A nation, after all, has borders and other kinds of boundaries. If it is a republic, it expects its citizens to take responsibility for electing its leaders and helping to shape its laws. These are unquestionable goods in the eyes of those who uphold the teaching of the American Founding, but they are obstacles to progress in the eyes of those who are eager to move us into a new historical epoch.
A friend sent his photos of Snow Geese wintering around Lake Wyandotte in Kansas this week. They are abundant. In fact, they are accused of destroying the tundra. Last I heard, during hunting season there is no limit in many states.
Unlike Canada Geese whose feathers can bounce off birdshot at distance, Snow Geese, in the words of a friend, "go down like a prom dress."
Except me. Well, I call them iCameras but whatever. When they refuse to recharge wirelessly, turn them off and turn back on. Then they will happily recharge. I thought my wireless rechargers were broken.
There are too many things in life that I do not know.
It's a Primo. A platter like that is to serve at least 2 people, maybe 4. I can be an annoying stickler about Italian food but there is a tradition to it and a logic to it too.
A big bowl of pasta is not a meal and, in fact, it would be a terribly unwholesome meal. A small plate of pasta, like the Bolognese recipe (the correct recipe) featured today is an excellent Primo preceding a meat and vegetable course (the Secondo). Bolognese is a beef-flavored sauce. Some tomato sauce flavor. Typically, less sauce than shown in the photo.
Italians seem to reserve their 4-course meals (Antipasto, Primo, Secondo, Dessert - sliced fruit usually) for special occasions. It's just too much food and puts you to sleep.
However, when we are in a food paradise like Norcia, Mrs. BD and I do their 4-course dinner (around 1 pm is dinner there) we just order one plate per course and share so we get all the tastes. Restaurants don't mind that at all.
Main rule for pasta? Dump the wet undrained pasta into the pan with the sauce with the heat on, and swirl around. Add some pasta water if a sauce is too dry or not creamy enough.
It's an interesting development. Evil, of course by American standards, but, as the article points out, the USA is an outlier in the world when it comes to free thought and free speech. Establishments and powers hate freedom. Thus American values.
The use of peanuts dates to the Aztecs and Incas. They supposedly made a paste out of them too. Wow. Another New World food that I missed on my list of European appropriations of native New World foods: Squash, corn (maize), all peppers, tomato, potato, sweet potato, beans, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, avocado, cashew, walnut, etc.
Of course we will attend a Bobby Burns Birthday Party here in NYC with pipers, kilties - and the Chieftain o' the pudding race - Haggis. And whiskey to make the haggis edible.
I emailed our host that my kilt got lost at the dry cleaners, but will attend anyway.
Except for Blueberries. 
How ecstasy and psilocybin 
