Sunday babble

I gather from our local newspaper and the MSM that the entire world shuts down on Saturdays and Sundays. Even the otherwise almost incesaant political babble seems to quiet down significantly. So, in the spirit of non-news and babbling I have decided to join in and babble to my heart’s content. It is my blog, after all, and I should be able to cry all I want.

First, on the bacon front. My bacon turned out to be quite delicious, even my wife agrees that it is much superior to anything we could buy in the store (and as a chef she is very particular). It is slightly too salty, but if you blanch it quickly it not only solves that problem but also makes it cook up much more crispy. The slab I am going to smoke tomorrow is going to be much better as it is a much more savory type and I have learned from this first slab. Of course we’ll have enough bacon to last for the rest of our lives, but with the price of bacon how can we complain. I am so buoyed by my successes with corned beef and bacon I am now thinking of curing a pig’s jowl (guanciale). Perhaps someday I will even graduate to sausages. It proves there are two possibilities: either you are never too old to learn, or there’s no fool like an old fool.

A friend recently returned from Amish country. He tells me that the Amish now use fully mechanized farm implements, as long as they are pulled by horses. Similarly, he reports they can own and use expensive tractors as long as they have metal wheels. I have no doubt these things are true. My friend would have absolutely no incentive to lie about such things. Furthermore, I find this entirely consistent with religious beliefs and practices in general, like wearing special underwear, beanies, black or white caps, eating fish on Fridays, believing in parthenogenesis, or whatever.

I wonder if there are people out there in space analyzing our television programming and magazines to see if they can perhaps understand us. If so, what would they see and think. I suggest they would immediately come to believe we are obsessed with (l) erections, (2) losing weight, (3) taking drugs, and (4) breakfast cereals. These are all interrelated and all point towards the same overwhelming American obsession: Sex. We often hear how it is that language reflects important elements of society. Pehaps the best example is that the Eskimo have several words for snow. I bet we have far more words for penis than they have for snow. Does that tell us anything?

I have just seen an article that points out that at the latest Paris fashion shows, men’s clothing is becoming increasingly feminized. That is, the materials used, and the designs tend to reflect what are ordinarily perceived as women’s fashions. Some are upset about this. Not me, I don’t care what the latest fashions are for either men or women. This would become obvious to you if you ever saw me. Frankly, I believe fashion and cosmetics have to be about the two most utterly ridiculous human activities that exist.

I have never been able to decide if I dislike poets more than dancers, or dancers more than poets. Mind you, it’s not poetry and dancing I dislike, it’s the practictioners of these avocations. Poets and dancers have always struck me as way too intense, tending to believe that what they do is their “life,” and shutting out most everything else. I say this of poets and dancers in general, I’m sure there must be some that are not so totally dedicated. I suppose Olympic class athletes are much the same, but at least they reach a point where they either succeed or fail and then go on to other things. My mother taught me to do everything in moderation, thus I am suspicious of extremists of any kind (not that I ever listened seriously to my mother).

Think of it, in a society of 300 million people, there are an estimated 76 million handguns. Do you believe it would be feasible to suddenly try to ban handguns? This is so impractical as to be hysterically funny. Handguns don’t deteriorate much over time, if at all, and people who own them are usually pretty passionate about owning them. This is a case where practical realities overwhelm desires and it is surely a lost cause. Of course now that our Supreme Clowns have decided individuals have the right to own guns, and not just militias, the issue should be moot – but it won’t be. This would just be another attempt at Prohibition that would be doomed to fail. We already have more than enough trouble with our current Prohibition on drugs, a situation that is causing far more grief, suffering, and crime than the failed Prohibition of alcohol. Marijuana should be immediately legalized and other drugs should soon follow. This is not to say they should be just readily available to anyone and everyone, prescriptions should still be required. But drugs are a medical problem, not a political one. You remember the scene in The Graduate where the guy offers advice to the graduate in one word: “plastics.?” If I had to advise a similar young man at the moment I would say: “hemp.”

A grizzly bear attacked a young woman involved in a 24 hour bicycle race in Alaska. I tell you, I believe the animals have had enough of us and are beginning a revolution. Is someone planning directing, and coordinating this animal terrorism? Perhaps it is all part of "Intelligent Design."

LKBIQ:
“Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.”
Dr. Martin Henry Fischer