babbling blue

Here’s something on the lighter side! This is from an English web site on “eating and drinking”, which are two of my favorite things. I got it from the blog of a cyber-acquaintance, another Josh.

Source

Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
(Note: With very few exceptions, I no longer eat fish or seafood, so that eliminates a number of things)

1. Venison (won’t eat it now)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding (gross!)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (Might have tried this as a kid, but I don’t recall)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (”How will you find a husband if you can’t make aloo gobi?”)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (I think I have anyway)
21. Heirloom tomatoes (not to my knowledge)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas (mmm)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I’ve had clam chowder many years ago but not in a sourdough bowl.
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea (How very English)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (does goat cheese count?)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone (sea snails? no thanks. I did try escargot many years ago)
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (I no longer eat at McDonalds)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (this is NOT bread)
63. Kaolin (this doesn’t really seem to be a food)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (I’ve had them all)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail (in France!)
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum (Not sure, I may have.)
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Huh?)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I’m only at about 1/3. I think this is indicative of my distaste for seafood, organs and “unusual” meats. I’ll eat pretty much any fruit or vegetable, but I’m pretty picky about what I eat when it comes to animals. And yes, I had to look a number of these things up.

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I haven’t been blogging much about politics, or at all really. I have just really lost all my enthusiasm for this election. I was a firm Obama supporter, but I am not any more. I will most likely vote for him in November, but being in Illinois it doesn’t really matter. I still think he’s better than McCain, but . . . well, I was really hoping to not have to choose the candidate that I thought was less bad for the first time since I started voting. Now, that’s how I’m feeling again. Obama has demonstrated himself to be a standard politician in reformer’s clothing, and not even a particularly shrewd one.

At some point Obama started drifting (or some say veering) to the right. That made me nervous. Then he did something that really turned me off. After saying he would vote against it, he turned around and voted for the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. I don’t want to go off on a tangent on FISA 2008, but suffice it to say there were a number of bad things in there, not just retro-active telecom immunity. That’s for another post.

Anyway, Obama has been called pragmatic (most recently by Joe Biden, I believe), and some would argue that his vote was politically necessary. I argue that as Americans, our civil liberties are not pawns to be sacrificed on the political chess board. They are the foundation of this country. Voting for the amendments upset a lot of people. There is a group on my.barackobama.com with more than 23,000 voters, created to urge Senator Obama to vote against telecom immunity in FISA.

And now we know his Veep candidate. Joe Biden. Biden has been called a blowhard, a wind bag and a number of other things. While he’s probably not a bad guy, he his enamored with the sound of his own voice and is–as such people often are–inclined to say some pretty stupid things, and get recorded doing it. Biden is known as Credit Card Joe and Senator MBNA because of his support for that wretched bankruptcy law written by the credit card industry, and more. And last but not least, he’s been in the Senate for 35 years. Hardly the symbol of CHANGE that Obama is trying to promote. In many ways, Joe Biden epitomizes the D.C. establishment that so many of us believe is FAILING this country so miserably.

After all that build up, the Biden announcement was a total disappointment. When the press leaked it late Friday, I hoped beyond hope that it was a fake out, and someone better would be announced soon. But I woke up Saturday morning and saw a text message from the Obama campaign that Biden was indeed his running mate. Blah.

So you see, I’m just finding it hard to care. I don’t want to just write bitchy blog posts, but I’m hard pressed for any other material.

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Just found out about this… Tor is giving away free fantasy and sci-fi ebooks (and some high-res wallpapers) in a variety of formats through this coming Sunday, July 27th. There are no strings attached, no registration required. The selection isn’t huge, and I am not familiar with most of the books, but I recognize a number of the authors. Free is free, so I’ll probably grab them now and check them out at some point. To me, there is no substitute for a real, paper book. . . but I’m willing to give this new-fangled electronic book thingie a shot.

Click here for the goodies!

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If you use gmail (if not, why not?) and Firefox 3 (If you use Firefox, you should upgrade. If you use IE you should use Firefox! Why, because I freakin’ said so! Plus, it’s better.) you can set up Firefox so that mailto: links will open in Gmail, rather than Outlook Express or whatever stupid email client you probably don’t use.

To see how, go to this post on the Gmail Blog. It’s easy!

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This just in. . . a leaked copy of Barack Obama’s V.P. short list, scooped by blogger Lee Camp.

Check it out

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And the City.

Yes, I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I went and saw Sex and the City opening night. But the girls (by which I mean the boys) were going, so what the heck? I did watch the whole series, after all.

The crowd was about what you’d expect. A sea of women, many of them all gussied up for the big premiere… and handful of gay men… and a smattering of pussy-whipped straight men, dragged there by their wives or girlfriends. Interestingly, it would have been a good place for a single straight guy to meet single straight gals. There were girls everywhere, and no competition to speak of.

The movie itself was decent. I’d say about 7 out of 10, which was slightly better than I was expecting. The plot was certainly no masterpiece. It was often predictable and heavy-handed (downright anvil-icious, I’d say). But it fit with the series and it was generally fun to watch. True to form, Carrie Bradshaw continues to make bad decisions (and wear hideous outfits) and sabotage her own happiness. But if that wasn’t the case, where would the drama come from?

Am I a Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte or Miranda? Well Samantha is my favorite, but I certainly can’t claim to be anything like her. I’m more of a combination of all of them (probably more Miranda and Carrie than Samantha and Charlotte though) but I think that’s the case for most people. Let’s face it, the girls are not well-rounded characters, they are all extremes. But who would have watched a show about four well-rounded New York women?

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So I just started watching American Gladiators this season (after watching the original series for years growing up). In this week’s episode (the 3rd) the fourth set of contestants competed. One of them was old Brick Reilly (below).

From NBC.com:

Brick Reilly is a 27-year-old tree climber from Springfield, New Jersey. He was born deaf and has always deemed athletics an important escape from the realities of life. Though Reilly recently had a cochlear implant which gave him the ability to hear, he never used his disability as an excuse in his life. He works as a mentor for deaf children in the New Jersey area.

He has already fought a congenital problem and come out on top. For that reason (and well. . . because he’s sexy) I was rooting for him. And he did not disappoint. He swung across Vertigo like he was a monkey, yanked Toa from Tilt and flew through Skytrack, becoming the first person to win that relatively new event.

Brick went into the Eliminator with a 12.5 second head start against his opponent. He breezed up the rope ladder and across the tightrope and zipped over on the hand bike like he uses one every day. Then he went down the rolling pin and dislocated his shoulder. . . and climbed the Pyramid and popped his motherfucking shoulder back into joint when he grabbed the zip line! You da fuckin’ man, Brick! He struggled a bit with the Travelator but came out victorious in the end.

You’ve got a fan in me, Brick. Go all the way!

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I was checking the weather on weather.com, since I noticed it had gotten really windy outside and wanted to see if a storm was coming. I noticed a weather statement that said the following:

WINNEBAGO-BOONE-MCHENRY-LAKE IL-OGLE- LEE-DE KALB-KANE-DUPAGE-COOK- KENDALL- WILL-LAKE IN-PORTER- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…ROCKFORD…WOODSTOCK… WAUKEGAN… OREGON…DIXON…DEKALB… AURORA…CHICAGO…OSWEGO…JOLIET… GARY…VALPARAISO 927 PM CDT MON MAY 26 2008

…PNEUMONIA FRONT MOVING DOWN WESTERN LAKE MICHIGAN…

A PNEUMONIA FRONT CURRENTLY IN FAR SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN WILL CONTINUE TO RAPIDLY DROP SOUTHWARD INTO NORTHERN ILLINOIS AND INDIANA TONIGHT. THIS FRONT HAS BEEN MARKED BY A DRASTIC CHANGE IN TEMPERATURES AND A STRONG WIND SHIFT. TEMPERATURES ALONG THE LAKE FRONT HAVE DROPPED FROM THE LOW TO MID 70S TO THE MID TO UPPER 40S AS THE FRONT PASSES. WINDS HAVE SHIFTED FROM BEING LIGHT AND OUT OF THE WEST TO OUT OF THE NORTHEAST AND GUSTING UP TO 40 MPH AT TIMES ALONG THE LAKE. THIS FRONT WILL BE INTO LAKE AND MCHENRY COUNTIES BY 10PM…COOK… DUPAGE..KANE…DEKALB…AND BOONE COUNTIES BY 1045PM…AND THE REST OF NORTHWEST INDIANA AND NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS BY MIDNIGHT CDT.

A PNEUMONIA FRONT IS A RARE… METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA THAT IS TYPICALLY OBSERVED ALONG THE WESTERN LAKE MICHIGAN SHORELINE DURING THE WARM SEASON. THESE FRONTS ARE DEFINED AS LAKE MODIFIED SYNOPTIC SCALE COLD FRONTS THAT RESULT IN ONE HOUR TEMPERATURE DROPS OF 16 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT OR GREATER.

That is strange. So it’s a like a really bad cold front? I’d never heard of a pneumonia front, and I’ve lived on western Lake Michigan all my life. But the temperature outside has indeed plummeted. Hmm, learn somethin’ new every day, I guess.

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Somebody’s asleep on the job…

John McCain’s last Senate vote: April 8, 2008
Before that: March 13, 2008
Missed votes since April 8: 42

Barack Obama’s last Senate vote: May 13, 2008
Before that: April 23, 2008
Missed votes since May 13: 9

Hillary Clinton’s last Senate vote: May 13, 2008
Before that: April 24, 2008
Missed votes since May 13: 9

Interesting numbers, but they only start to tell the story.
Since the January 3rd Iowa caucus, there have been 135 recorded Senate votes (excludes possible “voice votes”) as of May 15th*. Of those 135, this is the number of “Abstains” from each candidate. (If there is a record of whether or not the Senator was present and Abstained or just didn’t bother to show up, I haven’t seen it.)

Barack Obama: 75 votes “missed” = 55.6%
Hillary Clinton: 80 votes “missed” = 59.3%
John McCain: 99 votes “missed” = 73.3%

I wonder if these Senators, particularly Mr. McCain, realize they are still getting paid to be Senators and serve the constituents that got them where they are today.

To put this into perspective, here are a few Senators that weren’t campaigning for something:

Arlen Specter (R-PA): 2 votes “missed” = 1.5%
Ben Nelson (D-NE): 4 votes “missed” = 3%
Russ Feingold (D-WI): 0 votes “missed” = 0%

Whenever someone brings this stuff up (I’m by no means the first), their spokemonkeys will usually give the canned response that being a Senator is more than just voting. While that’s true, voting and being a legislator in general is very big part of it. Sure they have their staff keeping up with the other duties generally performed by the office of the Senator. But where is their leader? Where is the champion that the people of New York, Illinois and especially Arizona elected to represent their interests in Congress?

*According to Obama’s Senate website, he voted on 5/22. This information was not available at my primary source yet. I did not check the other candidates’ sites.

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