What the Boss Likes – Brothers Bright, Whitestone Motion Pictures – Appalachian gothic

I'm very fond of American myths dealing with our own monsters and magic.  This started with reading stories about Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan,  a strange turn when I read "The Lottery" and the Cthulhu mythos, the stories about "Silver John" by Manly Wade Wellman, and into role-playing games like "Deadlands".    Southern gothic is a subset. … Continue reading What the Boss Likes – Brothers Bright, Whitestone Motion Pictures – Appalachian gothic →

Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – a star in the east…. wait a minute…

I think I’ve mentioned here on this blog somewhere that I ran the planetarium when I was in college as a work-study job. Every November and December, we ran a Christmas star show, which showed that the story was a lot of nonsense. But people still flocked to it because they didn’t pay attention and … Continue reading Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – a star in the east…. wait a minute… →

From the Kitchen and the backyard – crispy sticky rice, cheesecake, a mutant challah, plus a possum

After cooking the Thai flavored pork shoulder for Thanksgiving, we decided we needed another side dish for it since there was about 8 pounds of pork to eat.   The December 2016 Food & Wine magazine presented yet another Thai flavored recipe and that’s what was made as a side to accompany the rest of the … Continue reading From the Kitchen and the backyard – crispy sticky rice, cheesecake, a mutant challah, plus a possum →

Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – fundamentalist white rural America

White, rural fundamentalist America is where I grew up.  This article on Raw Story (which seems to have come from Alter Net) gets it very much right. http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/the-dark-rigidity-of-fundamentalist-rural-america-a-view-from-the-inside/ "When you have a belief system that is built on fundamentalism, it isn’t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and … Continue reading Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – fundamentalist white rural America →

From the Kitchen and From the Bar – a less than standard Thanksgiving: Thai pork roast

This year we decided to part from the norm of having our usual chicken dinner and try a new recipe we found in my subscription to Food & Wine magazine. This new recipe was for Thai Pulled Pork Sandwiches by Chef Jamie Bissonnette. This where my new Thai ingredients came into play. The online store, … Continue reading From the Kitchen and From the Bar – a less than standard Thanksgiving: Thai pork roast →

Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – screw your courage to the sticking place!

The goats won, barely.   And it is a reason to be angry.  However, it is also reason to be resolved, because it won’t last long.   In six months, half of those who voted for Trump will have buyer’s remorse; indeed Trump will have it himself when he realizes that being president isn’t being dictator. He … Continue reading Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – screw your courage to the sticking place! →

Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – When you aren’t getting all of the story

I’ve been thinking about how people often don’t get the whole story. They can do this by willfully ignoring information, trusting unwisely, or by simple laziness.   This election is full of all of these, perhaps most blatantly shown in the idiocy of people here in PA buying more and more guns, because, you of course … Continue reading Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – When you aren’t getting all of the story →

Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – they’ll still be here, and that’s fine – now we remember

Even though I have known that the US had people who were ignorant and hateful, they were always in the background. In my lifetime, which consists of the late 60s and onward, we kept moving forward, incrementally sure, but we did move. The David Dukes, the vast majority of both my spouse’s and my rural … Continue reading Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – they’ll still be here, and that’s fine – now we remember →

From the Kitchen – port peppercorn sauce and a petit beef tenderloin filet

Although we’ve wandered a bit off of the South Beach diet lately, we are doing pretty well in keeping any new weight from being added back on.   It does help us to weigh ourselves every day, just to keep an eye on things.  We also got back some lab reports and everything is better, including cholesterol (your … Continue reading From the Kitchen – port peppercorn sauce and a petit beef tenderloin filet →