Sunday Stealing: blueberry muffins

Bonnie, Neil, Diana, and Mac

  1. Here’s another installment of Sunday Stealing, which is reason enough to have a picture of blueberry muffins. The first question is, What’s your guilty pleasure?  

I’ll list foods I should not eat but crave for this exercise. These tend to involve pastry with fruit, such as banana bread, blueberry muffins, and apple pastry. 

Which meal is your favorite: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?

Dinner, because it tends to be the most varied. Breakfast is almost always oatmeal. Lunch is whatever leftovers might be kicking around. Dinner tends to be the most interesting.

What do you do when you want to chill out after a long day?

It tends to be watching television, specifically the Evening News, which we record and fast-forward through the commercials. So, I’ve managed to miss the bulk of the political ads running. Then, my wife and I play the New York Times Connections together.

How would you spend your ideal weekend?

On Saturday, we usually attend some event: a concert, play, musical, movie, or social gathering. Sunday involves going to church and then talking to my sisters on Zoom.

MUSIC, of course 

Do you listen to podcasts, or mostly just music? What’s your favorite podcast?

I listen to a lot of music, usually seven CDs per day. Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Dr. John, and Neil Young are currently heavily in the rotation. But not many podcasts because I can’t multitask. I have to listen intently. It’s the same reason I can’t listen to audiobooks and do something else, as some people, notably my wife, can. I am utterly incapable. I have to concentrate on the item. So, besides Arthur’s occasional AmeriNZ item, the only podcast I listen to regularly is Coverville, which is mostly music.

Brian Ibbott usually picks covers of artists whose birthdays are divisible by five. So in November, he might select Chris Difford (Squeeze), 70, on the 4th; Bryan Adams, 65, on the 5th; Corey Glover (Living Colour), 60, on the 6th; Rickkie Lee Jones, 70, on the 7th; Bonnie Raitt, 75 on the 7th, etc.
Do you prefer to go to the movies or watch movies at home?

Cinema, always. I saw many movies at home during COVID-19, but it wasn’t the same. I remember going to the Spectrum Theatre when the vaccine was available, but social distancing and masks were the norm, and it was such a treat to see the films on the big screen.

TeeVee

What was your favorite TV show growing up?

The Dick Van Dyke Show. Mark Evanier has linked to his ten favorite episodes. (His #2 may be my #1)

What’s your favorite TV show now?

CBS Sunday Morning, a magazine on the air since 1979.

How would you spend your birthday if money was no object? 

I’d rather throw a surprise party for Kelly with a few dozen of his closest friends and family in Washington, DC.

What’s your favorite season? What do you love most about it?

Spring. It could have snow or 86°F/30°C, but ultimately, it will have new life.

Do you prefer camping or going to the beach? 

I don’t like either. If I had to choose, I’d say go to the beach, but I’d need a huge umbrella to protect me from the sun.

Which phone app do you think you use the most?

I probably use Noom because it can track all my food consumption. After that, I’ll probably use Venmo to send money to my daughter and the CDTA navigator so I can get around on the bus in Albany.

Steppin’ Out

Would you instead cook, order delivery, or go out to eat? 

I would eat out almost every meal, every day. There’s something about other people preparing your food for you and then cleaning up afterward. It’d be different restaurants with a variety of levels of fanciness.

How do you drink your coffee?

I don’t drink coffee. I know it’s unAmerican.

If you could have any animal as a pet, what would you choose? 

I don’t want another pet. We had two cats this year; one of them died. It’s much easier to go away when you don’t have a creature depending on you. I liked having them and love our remaining cat, but I reckon we won’t have another one.

Sunday Stealing – Food questions

K-E-double L-O-double good

This week’s Sunday Stealing is a bunch of food questions. I’ve eaten food now and then, as I recall.

1. If you were a vegetable, which one would you be, and would you ever let yourself be smothered in cheese?

Obviously, it would be a GREEN vegetable, and it would be spinach. But if it were to have cheese sauce on it, it’d have to be broccoli because.

2. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be, and how long do you think it would take before you got sick of it?

I answered this recently, and I said either pie because there are many different pies (chicken pot, cherry, etc.) or sandwiches. But if I had to narrow it, it’d be eggs. They can be scrambled, fried, poached, hard-boiled, or soft-boiled. I could probably do that for a year unless I could put things INTO the eggs. Then possibly forever.

3. Would you rather have fingers made of licorice or spaghetti noodles for hair?

Ick. Noodles for hair.

4. What’s the most unusual pizza topping combination you can think of that might actually taste surprisingly good?

I want to try Spam, which is a thing in Hawaii.

Hero of our nation

5. If you were an ice cream flavor, what would be your name, and what would the ingredients be?

Ramjet, with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and peaches in a vanilla ice cream base.

6. If you could make a smoothie out of any three foods, which ones would you choose, and what would you name your concoction?

I’m not a smoothie kind of guy.

7. What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen someone do with food?

We were playing baseball with heads of lettuce. Or maybe it was cabbage—aluminum bats.

8. If your favorite food could talk, what do you think it would say about you?

You’re finally eating your veggies besides me, Spinach would say.

9. If you were a chef, what outrageous names would you give to your dishes to make them more interesting?

I would go through my bookshelf and pick random titles. String Music of Black Composers, which would be spaghetti and various meat products. The Book of Virtues, which would have to be some veggie thing.

10. If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be, and what food do you think they’d be surprised to see on the menu?

Thomas Jefferson and it would be anything that was microwavable.

11. What’s the weirdest or grossest thing you’ve ever eaten just to impress someone else?

Not my style. I’m not a food dare kind of guy.

The battle for Battle Creek

12. If breakfast cereals were characters in a TV show, which cereal would be the comedic sidekick, and which one would be the evil villain?

Tony the Tiger, who’s great, with the Froot Loops toucan. I know that Snap, Crackle, and Pop are engaged in criminal enterprises. They keep their safecracking tools under those caps. Incidentally, I own a set of the bowls shown above because of course I do.

13. If you could turn one vegetable into a superpower, which one would it be, and what could you do with it?

The vegetable doesn’t matter. Whichever one can transport me like they do on Star Trek. But it’d have to be small enough to carry but large enough not to get lost. A radish? A peapod?

14. What do you think aliens would say about our strange Earth foods if they came to visit?

If they travel to Earth, I assume their food might be reduced to pills or another easily storable commodity. So it is the wide diversity of foods that would awe them. Then they’d become disgusted by how much of that food went to waste and how some people didn’t have enough to eat. Undoubtedly, they would be very judgy.

15. If foods had personalities, which two foods would make the weirdest couple, and why?

The potato would have the personality of the Potato Heads from the Toy Story movies, perhaps a bit stodgy. Meanwhile, if you’ve seen those wind dance air puppets, they remind me of celery. They’re flapping all over the place.

The cats versus the vacuum cleaner

food versus fear

Because Midnight, the black cat, is so food-obsessive, I’ve mused on how to slow him down. If I’m going downstairs, whether to feed him or not, he’ll barrel down the stairs. It’s why I hold on to the railing, lest he knock me over.

And when I’m actually in the process of feeding him, he, more than Stormy the gray cat, seems to be constantly underfoot, no matter in which direction I walk.

I tried an experiment involving the vacuum cleaner. Both Midnight and Stormy are afraid of it. When Midnight starts chewing on the window shades or clawing the furniture or climbing onto the dining room table, I wheel it toward him, and he generally retreats. And usually, I don’t even have to turn it on. Stormy hisses at it; it is not afraid.

I placed the vacuum in the kitchen so that they couldn’t enter the room without passing the appliance, and turned it on. Perhaps I could prepare their meal without distraction. But no such luck.

Apparently, Midnight’s need for sustenance is greater than his fear of the machinery, for he galloped past the red menace. He only gallops when hungry, and he’s been in the basement, attic, or other room, and it’s near or past mealtime.

The intruder

Often, Midnight and Stormy are at odds. But they recognized another enemy. Something clearly was on the front porch. , though I didn’t know what. Midnight was peering around the window treatment, Stormy was scratching at the window.

A couple of summers ago, my wife bought new chairs for our front porch. The first year, they were still like new. But lately, we noticed some hair on one of them recently. Sure enough, I saw a gray cat, a lighter shade than Stormy, resting on the chair on the porch. It left when Stormy repeatedly banged her head against the window, driving the intruder away. They acted in harmony when an external threat was on the horizon.

The black cat next door, who sometimes hangs out on our porch, they are not fans of either. But the gray cat SITTING on our furniture was just too much for them to bear.

Death Cafe and talking to strangers

“how not to be real”

Death CafeBack in 2018, I wrote about a concept called the Death Cafe. Here’s the website

“At a Death Cafe people drink tea, eat cake and discuss death. Our aim is to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their (finite) lives”

Although I only attended a single event in person, I’ve been to about a half dozen sessions remotely. I’ve even facilitated a couple of breakout sessions since one wants no more than 4-6 people in a given virtual room.

The last session organized by the Albany group in may had people from New York City and central Europe. It is one of those rare events that, arguably, might be enhanced by Zoom.

One relays stories, largely to strangers, which is oddly therapeutic. I might tell of some specific disappointment about an absence at a recent funeral. It might be easier to share the story there than in this blog.

Food

I could talk about the tons of food that were brought to my parents’ house after my father died in August 2000. I specifically remember that someone came by at 10:30 pm, my mother looking exhausted from the day.

Conversely, almost no food was brought to my MIL’s house in April 2020 after my FIL died. It wasn’t just different norms between North Carolina and upstate New York, plus the passage of time. There was a pandemic, so the extended family wasn’t at her home. On the other hand, a pair of my wife’s friends brought us some food, delivered appropriately in a socially distanced manner.

Back in 2012, Jaquandor reviewed Making Piece: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Pie by Beth Howard. It’s a lovely reflection, which you should read.

Ken Levine on the sudden death of his friend Arlen Peters: “Order the pie.  You never know.”

My  May 31 post has a few more examples.

AmeriNZ

One of those food narratives was linked from Arthur’s blog, He’s been writing a LOT about death, bravely and quite insightfully. For instance, he wrote about people being very good actors. “We learn what to say, how not to say things, and how to present ourselves in a way that the people in our lives expect. We learn, in other words, how not to be real.”

Or finding the right words. “I’ve seen many people dealing with profound grief who say that they stop talking about their grief journey because they sense that the people they talk to don’t want to hear about it, or else they’re visibly uncomfortable. In such cases, the grieving person will, essentially, adopt what they see as the socially expected behavior: Silence.”

And there are others.

My point in linking to these is that talking about issues surrounding death doesn’t glorify death. It contextualizes death in this world rather than making it a verboten topic.

If you’re so inclined, check out a Death Cafe. There will be an in-person one (finally) in Albany County very soon.

Death Cafe Flyer June. 30 2021

Nov. rambling: the Opposite of Déjà Vu

The djt library

set_in_the_present_2x
Permanent link to this comic: https://xkcd.com/2384/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
This means you’re free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them).

DNA evidence proved Lydell Grant’s innocence

John Green – On Immunity, Inoculation, and Individuals and Hank Green- How We Teach: Individualist Stories

BP Evaluation and Treatment in Patients with  Prediabetes or Diabetes

More than anyone, Tom Heinsohn was Mr. Celtic

Golfer Jon Rahm Bounced a Ball Over Water to Get a Hole in One

Miami Marlins hire Kim Ng as MLB’s first female general manager

An Atlas of the Cosmos

Why Do Airline Dress Codes Still Exist?

Ken Levine’s podcast: Episode 200!

An Oral History of Marge vs The Monorail

How to Brace Yourself for Disappointment

Single foster dad adopts five siblings so they won’t be separated

60 Minutes Australia: John Cleese interview

What is the Opposite of Déjà Vu?

Word Genius: Most Beautiful Words  in the English Language

Food Waste in America in 2020 and Guide to  Food Storage for Healthier Eating

Animals

Meet The New First Dogs of the Country

The Angler Fish: A Mystery of The Deep

World’s Last Known White Giraffe Gets GPS Tracking Device

Woman the hunter: Ancient Andean remains challenge old ideas of who speared big game

Fire in The Pig Barn   at June Farms

After A Whale Dies, What Happens? and 50 Years Ago, Oregon Blew Up a Dead Whale. With Dynamite. On Live TV.

3 men banned from Yellowstone after trying to cook chicken in geyser

Ken Spears, R.I.P. Ruby, and Spears, who created and/or supervised some of the most popular animated characters ever on television including Scooby-Doo.

Commercials starting Alvin and the Chipmunks and David Seville

TREBEK

They learned English — and how to be American — from watching him

Tribute to a Travel Hero

Alex Trebek and Truth

Fordham benefactor

Choose Presence Over Judgment

TIME

Contestants’ Most Hated Word:  Preemption

Who Could Take Over as Jeopardy! Host. Maybe LeVar Burton?

Winners and Losers

The djt library

Can I Get Over Donald Trump?

THE REAGANS Proves Just How Closely Trump Followed an Old GOP Playbook

His top scandals

Over 220 LGBTQ candidates celebrate election victories

The Gap’s Deleted Post-Election Tweet Shows Just How Uninterested Many Americans Are in Unity Right Now

Germany calls on its young to be the Covid heroes  of 2020

Dilbert: Banana Is Not An Apple

Now I Know

A Long Way to Save a Few Quid and The Doctor With a  Vision for Vision and The I’m Not in Washington Defense and How Did the Squirrel Cross the Road? and The Pothole Vigilante

MUSIC

Paula White’s Re-Election Prayer For Donald Trump Ft. Lil KC Remix – WTFBRAHH

Violinist Hilary Hahn, performing Beethoven’s Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra. Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Coverville: 1331: Sometimes They Come Back… and 1332: The Divine Comedy Cover Story and 1333: The Neil Young Cover Story III and  1334: Cover Stories for Graham Parker, Kim Wilde, and Björk

Les Miserables song One Day More

Vaughan Williams: Nation Shall Not Lift Up A Sword Against Nation/Glory To God In The Highest, from Dona Nobis Pacem

Tradicion from Fiddler on the Roof, performed in Panama

Medley of old  TV theme songs – Josh Groban, 2008 Emmy Awards

Bad Moon Rising – Julien Neel

I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor

Sing – Carpenters

I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog – Peter, Paul, and Mary (25th Anniversary Concert)

Baby Shark – PINKFONG Songs for Children, Watched over SEVEN BILLION times

Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift 

Wendy Carlos doesn’t need THIS biography

 

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial