74 responses to “Two weddings.”

1. 

   adrianne said on July 30, 2010 at 10:56 am

   Even though we’re across the Hudson, our paper is being swept up in Chelsea-mania. I also found the vegan menu angle interesting (although there’s a side dish of organic, grass-fed beef for those guests who can’t forego the Chateaubriand). All I have to say to the couple is mazel tov!

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2. 

   MRMARK said on July 30, 2010 at 10:57 am

   “One of the band mem­bers flirted with me, and I’m glad I remem­ber, because I think that’s the last time that’s going to hap­pen, ever.” Hilarious! Keep hope alive Nance!

   One of my photos was selected as “Photo of the Week” on a prof photographers website. You can listen to his interview of me on his site FroKnowsPhoto.com (serious photographer, hilarious hair)

   Nance, the photo was taken in Fort Wayne of all places…

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3. 

   LAMary said on July 30, 2010 at 11:00 am

   I like fresh sweet corn and real tomatoes so much I don’t think they need much enhancement. A little olive oil, a little butter, salt and pepper, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, chili powder, basil, oregano. Choose what works for you.
   Now I’m hungry and it’s only 8 am here.

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4. 

   Barbara said on July 30, 2010 at 11:07 am

   I’ve made a roasted corn soup from one of Mark Miller’s recipes (google books link). If you use all the chipotles you will certainly need all of the cheese. But it’s fabulous. Mmmm… maybe I’ll make some this weekend.

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5. 

   Deborah said on July 30, 2010 at 11:12 am

   “redonku­lous”, that’s a new one. I like it. Regarding the redneck wedding show, my favorite from that was the bride who was so excited that her fiance pee-ed “marry me?” on asphalt when he popped the question.

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6. 

   LAMary said on July 30, 2010 at 11:14 am

   http://gawker.com/5600318/traumatic-barracuda-injury-turned-into-hilarious-photo+op

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7. 

   Rana said on July 30, 2010 at 11:29 am

   Oh, man. The difference in their expressions is indeed hilarious. And a bit sad.

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8. 

   Cynthia said on July 30, 2010 at 11:30 am

   Nancy,
   I have a fabulous recipe for fried tomato sandwiches that work well as a side dish:

   Filling:
   8 oz cream cheese
   garlic to taste(I use a real teaspoon of jarred minced)
   salt to taste
   fresh basil leaves chopped (I use lots)
   Mix all together and let stand for few hours or overnight.

   Cut fresh red tomatoes into slices (usually four slices per tomato). Spread filling on one slice and top with the other to make “sandwich.” Dip both sides of sandwich first in white flour, then egg w/milk, and last in bread crumbs (I use italian seasoned).

   Fry sandwiches uncovered on low-medium heat in pan with EV olive oil and turn to brown both sides. Sandwiches are done when browned and tomatoes are cooked. Serve immediately or keep warm while finishing the rest of the sandwiches.

   Everyone raves about this dish and i think you and your guests will as well. Enjoy!

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9. 

   coozledad said on July 30, 2010 at 11:34 am

   That kid looks like she’s about to go into shock. I saw someone who was bitten by a copperhead who had that look.
   She’ll probably be taking a bus away from home when she turns eighteen.

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10. 

    Joe Kobiela said on July 30, 2010 at 11:36 am

    This flying job involves alot of waiting in pilots lounges but every once in awhile you have a couple of cool days.Thursday I flew to Port Huron (went right over n.n.homestead) and picked up Harley parts and took them to Troy Penn witch is only 20 miles from Gettysburgh so I took the afternoon and visited,what a great and sombering experience.When I got back nascar driver Jeff Burton and his family were there waiting on a flight. This is a small airport and Mister Burton was very nice, Just shook his hand told him I enjoyed watching him race and left him alone. Today Iam in Springfield Ill and just toured Lincolns grave,from Gettysburgh to Lincolns grave in less than 24hrs pretty neat. wish I had time to go to the museum here.
    Pilot Joe

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11. 

    brian stouder said on July 30, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    Joe – you hit the trifecta! If I was a nascar fan, Jeff Burton would be my fave. He’s not a hothead, he is a fine racer, and his interviews are always lucid.

    Gettysburg is always enthralling, and indeed – you’re ahead of me. Last time I was there was 2 or 3 summers ago, and they didn’t yet have their new Visitor Center completed. The French onion soup at that Revolutionary War-era Inn (in town) is just marvelous, marvelous stuff.

    And one cannot go wrong in Springfield, Illinois. The Lincoln Museum there is very family-friendly and easy to spend an entertaining hour there, or an engrossed afternoon. (and the Lincoln Home is a must-see, too)

    Aside from that, and since the proprietress concluded her post with a genuinely corny pun, here are three of the puns, from the list of 22 that I got yesterday:

    5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

    17. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion
    allowed per passenger.’

    19. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too.

    edit: and btw, I intend to wile away my retired days, flirting with whoever will let me; I think, if done right, that would keep a person a little sharper (and would be more fun than Soduko)

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12. 

    basset said on July 30, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    “Wile” is what it’d take for me to get any attention that way… we watch “Redneck Weddings” whenever we can find it, along with the “Big Joe Polka Show” on RFD. 9 pm Central on Saturdays, what else are you gonna do at our age?

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13. 

    LAMary said on July 30, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    The only thing I’ve ever watched on RFD was Mule Training. My son and I used to get up early on the weekends to catch it. If I ever get a mule I’m ready. Or if you need any advice, Cooz, I’m here for you.

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14. 

    Jolene said on July 30, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    Great photo, MRMARK. Eye-catching, indeed. Great composition, and, as you said the color of the darkening sky is just marvelous. Nicely done.

    Brian, I was recently at a family reunion that involved a talent show. I thought it would be torture, but it was actually a lot of fun as the bar as to what constituted a talent was set so low. For instance, my niece’s recently acquired husband demonstrated five ways to spin a quarter. There was a seven-year-old girl who played a few notes on her recorder and then told several knock-knock jokes. Your puns would have fit right in.

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15. 

    Ann said on July 30, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    Put maybe 1/3rd to 1/2 cup of olive oil in the bottom of a pretty serving bowl. Add 1 T salt, some freshly ground black pepper, 3 cloves of chopped garlic, and a cup or more of torn up basil leaves. Stir.

    Boil a pot of water. Add a couple of pounds of beautiful farmers market tomatoes. Boil for one minute and remove with a slotted spoon (leaving the water boiling) and dunk in cold water. Slip off the skins, cut into 8ths, and add to the serving bowl.

    Add a pound of linguine or other pasta (bucatini is nice, so are egg noodles)to the boiling water and cook as directed. Drain. Add to serving bowl. Toss and serve at room temperature.

    You can grate Romano cheese on this at the table. Or add some feta and olives to make it more middle-eastern, but the truth is it’s wonderful just as it is.

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16. 

    Bob said on July 30, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    The only camo-pattern wedding-wear I’ve ever seen is in wire photos of some of those Michigan militia guys busted in the kill-some-cops, cause-an-uprising plot. Don’t think I’ll ever see it again without thinking, “Kooks afoot?”

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17. 

    Colleen said on July 30, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    Well, according to the Huffington Post, the redneck wedding of the century may be off, as it is rumored the potential groom has impregnated someone who is not the potential bride.

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18. 

    Deborah said on July 30, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    Oh my god Colleen, will the drama ever end?

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19. 

    doug loveland said on July 30, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    I think the place referred to in this piece

    http://www.greaterfool.ca/2010/07/29/the-warning-2/

    is the one you spoke of earlier. Looks even grander than I imagined.

    But I’d still take the Vancouver teardown and lot over that place.

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20. 

    alex said on July 30, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    Saw that one myself. Levi was one of three men who doinked the knocked-up lady during the week of conception.

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21. 

    nancy said on July 30, 2010 at 2:36 pm

    Yep, that’s the same house. He got an important detail wrong — it’s not in the city of Detroit, but Troy, one of the second-ring suburbs.

    And might we see Levi Johnston on an upcoming Maury Povich DNA revelations show? Please!

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22. 

    LAMary said on July 30, 2010 at 2:48 pm

    I would take the day off work to see Levi on Maury.

    Levi….you ARE the father.
    Then Bristol runs backstage.

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23. 

    brian stouder said on July 30, 2010 at 2:57 pm

    Y’know, as they always say – the line between comedy and tragedy can be razor thin.

    Just today at lunch, Pam and the young folks met me at Arby’s on State and Sherman. The vibe there is…unique; the neighborhood isn’t “sketchy”, per se, but maybe borderline. Last time we were there, a Type-A real estate sales woman was putting the big push on an ancient old man, as he slowly consumed the curly fries that she (presumeably) had bought him. (it looked like she wasn’t making the sale, but we digress)

    Today as we were eating, Pam stopped and exclaimed, and a terrible look came over her face, for a second there; and then she laughed!

    Her view was out the windows behind me, and toward the busy intersection. There’s a Dairy Queen on one corner, and gas stations/stores on two others, and then the Arby’s; she had observed as a bicyclist in the DQ parking lot very nearly got clobbered by a fast-moving car that had darted in there. All in an instant, the bicyclist bailed off the bike and landed on her feet, as the car screeched to a halt and nearly smashed the riderless bike. But the detail that made Pam laugh was – through it all, the bicyclist had NOT lost her ice-cream cone.

    Here’s hoping Bristol keeps hold of her goodies, too

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24. 

    Jen said on July 30, 2010 at 3:05 pm

    Some days, I’m so glad I’m not famous. My coworker and I were watching Inside Edition’s coverage of Chelsea’s wedding, and it was just so ridiculous. All she wants to do is get married and everybody is going crazy about everything. I liked the ruckus yesterday about how Obama was not invited to her wedding. Well, duh! She’s already going to be potentially upstaged by her parents, considering her dad is a former president and her mom is the secretary-of-state! She doesn’t need the current president there, too! I heard that Oprah wasn’t invited either. You mean Chelsea wanted to invite her friends and family, not A-listers? Crazy-talk!

    I hope her wedding goes well, and I hope she has a long, happy marriage! I’m not quite sure why everybody is going so crazy about it – they didn’t go so nuts when Jenna Bush got married, did they?

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25. 

    Sue said on July 30, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    Jen, re Jenna Bush’s wedding, probably not as much publicity, but I do recall this little corner of the world spent way too much time making catty botox comments about Laura. I mean, it was almost like we actually got invited to Jenna’s wedding and ended up at one of the back tables surrounded by wine bottles and overturned glasses, picking apart the guests. You know, the fun table, there’s one at every wedding.

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26. 

    Jeff Borden said on July 30, 2010 at 3:35 pm

    If the Palin family did not exist, a cable channel would have to invent them. The train wrecks just keep on comin’.

    Not only is there the possibility that Levi knocked up his short-term girlfriend –dude, wear a fucking condom sometime, okay?– but Miss Abstinence herself is reportedly sporting a new baby bump and the kid might not be Levi’s.

    I believe it’s been said that the difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. If someone had pitched the Palins for a series and simply described the last couple of years of their existence, I wonder if the producer wouldn’t just collapse into laughter and show them the door.

    You’d start with SheWho, of course, and her amazing tale of enduring contractions and leaking fluids while delivering a speech in Texas, then taking multiple long flights back to Alaska, and then from Anchorage to a small medical center in Wasilla that is not equipped to handle infants born with Downs Syndrome. The producer would tilt his head and say, “Oh, please, no mother-to-be would be that reckless and stupid.”

    You’d add in the names of the family, who sound more like dogs in a kennel than people in a house. The producer would shake his head. “Yeah, right. The kids are named Track and Trig. Please.”

    You’d introduce the virginal Bristol and her boyfriend, the self-described redneck, Levi Johnston. Except –ooopsy– Bristol is now a high school dropout pregnant by said Levi, who also is a high school dropout. Then you’d note that Bristol was going to be a spokeswoman for abstinence education and would charge $15,000 to $30,000 per speech. By now, the producer would be smashing his head on the desk, moaning, “You cannot be serious.”

    Now you’d describe Levi, a handsome enough wastrel from a family with, mmmm, interesting ways of making money, like his mom, charged with six felony counts for distributing Oxycontin. And his sister, Mercede, who would be more than willing to sling the mud whenever she perceived herself to be stung by the Palins. Levi, of course would be welcomed by the Palin family, embraced onstage by the Republican presidential candidate, then put on outs by the Palins, reducing him to posing for Playgirl magazine. Then, lo, he would be welcomed back by the Palins. The producer is drooling and his eyes are glazed. “No more,” he’d wheeze.

    And then you’d note how Bristol was planning the wedding of the week in Wasilla, complete with camo vests for her young studly dropped out husband, but wait. . .Perhaps Levi is the father of another child out of wedlock, but so too might be Bristol! The producer would pull out a Desert Eagle and threaten to blow off your head if you didn’t leave right now.

    The Palins makes the morons of “Jersey Shore” look like the Austens. Come to think of it. . .Snooki, The Situation, J-Wow. . .those could all be Palin kid names.

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27. 

    alex said on July 30, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    You know, the fun table, there’s one at every wed­ding.
    

    I sat at that very table at Tony & Tina’s Wedding, an “interactive” theatrical production in Chicago some years ago where the audience were attendees at a raucous wedding and got served food and booze as part of the package. At one point, one of the cast, a groomsman, came over and said “I can tell you’re the stoners at this party. Wanna come smoke a joint?” Then he took us to a broom closet and got us high.

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28. 

    prospero said on July 30, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    What does Rush have to say about the dog’s wedding. Really, didn’t that comment put him in Jim Rome territory? Anyway, she’s far more intelligent, accomplished and attractive than the latest hooker the fatass Oxy and Viagra addict paid to be the new Mrs. Rush. Which marriage will last longer? I’m betting on the dog.

    “Tops in mindless” was a telling phrase in a Tom McGuane novel. Limbaugh told an absolutely tasteless and self-aggrandizing joke on air about being propositioned by Hillary Clinton, about the same time he ridiculed the appearance of a 13-year-old. Dennis Miller wouldn’t stoop to such assholery, and with his brain damage, Dennis will stoop to almost anything. Why is Rush employed? He gives tops in mindless a bad name.

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29. 

    coozledad said on July 30, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    Depends on the director, Jeff. Peter North’s a little long in the tooth to play Levi, but “Gangbangs of Wasilla” sounds like money.

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30. 

    ROgirl said on July 30, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    Why is Rush employed, you ask?

    Well, you are talking about the tasteless and self-aggrandizing things he said.

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31. 

    Mindy said on July 30, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    Levi Johnston should have kept his Johnston in his Levi’s.

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32. 

    Sue said on July 30, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    Mindy wins!

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33. 

    prospero said on July 30, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    Know what else? Wasn’t that an extremely weird thing for the cigar (in this case, undeniably penis) sucking Uncle Ernie of FoxNews to spew? What sort of pedophilia was he spouting.

    He’s obsessed with Obama’s kids, too. What goes through what passes for minds of Dittoheads when Jabba spews this pedophiliac bile? I mean, some of them must have teenage daughters.

    Anyway, Chelsea was named for a Joni Mitchell song, which is pretty cool. I imagine she laughs off crap like this. How’s that for fair and balanced reporting? No news today? Lets invent a bizarre controversy.

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34. 

    prospero said on July 30, 2010 at 4:16 pm

    ROGirl, Rush is a fact of American life. I can certainly comment on his bilious presence without promoting it. That gross piece of shit doesn’t exist in his current disgusting state because people criticize him. Too many Murrican citizens are so stupid they can’t comprehend he’s used them to get rich.

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35. 

    Jeff Borden said on July 30, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    I agree, Prospero. Rush in the latest in a long line of carnival hucksters who separate rubes from their money. If radio didn’t exist, he’d be the barker outside the freak show tent, urging the simple-minded to come see Jo-Jo the Monkey-Faced Boy and the Bearded Lady and the incredible, two-headed calf, and cackling with glee as they spent their money.

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36. 

    brian stouder said on July 30, 2010 at 5:16 pm

    So I clicked Nance’s link to Gail Collins, and she lost me on about the 4th sentence, when this bit of Received Wisdom from the Flying Monkeys of the rightwing airwaves spewed forward:

    Additional happy tidings: The gulf oil spill doesn’t look as bad as we thought.

    Good Christ! 200,000,000 gallons of oil poured from one spot, nonstop for 80-odd days, and – because enough of it has been submerged we’re going to say “doesn’t look so bad”???!!

    This reminds me of the knight in Monty Python’s search for the Holy Grail (the one who says “None shall pass!”) after his left arm and right arm and left leg and right leg have all been hacked off; and he says “I’ve had worse!”

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37. 

    ROgirl said on July 30, 2010 at 5:22 pm

    Yes, he’s a rich, bloviating asshole who appeals to a lot of people who confuse lowbrow entertainment with political commentary. He could just as easily be a wrestling promoter.

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38. 

    MarkH said on July 30, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    Brian, I am puzzled by this as well. Early on, there was talk of the “submerged plumes” of crude that would be hard to trace or find. So, what will become of them? And these stories downplaying the disaster seem to be coming from all corners of the media. NPR’s Science Friday had one such expert on today claiming that all was not lost in the marshlands of Louisiana (where she lives, apparently) due to the entry of the oil.

    BTW, girlfriend has come forward claiming she hadn’t seen Levi’s Johnston in a few years, so, no-go, daddio.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-30/levi-johnston-ex-girlfriend-speaks-on-pregnancy-rumors-/?cid=hp:mainpromo6

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39. 

    paddyo' said on July 30, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    I’m NOT an expert, but I work for one of the federal agencies that has a stake in the “Guff,” and in fact tomorrow I deploy down there for a couple of weeks of public affairs duty. We’re certainly not going anywhere anytime soon, and we expect it will take a long time for the Gulf to recover. But most of what I’ve read or heard from the “experts” so far focuses on the ability of that very large, and very-warm-water ecosystem to process all manner of biological insults, including oil.

    OK, maybe not process THIS much oil at once, but this disaster IS different from the one in which drunken ol’ Joe Hazelwood ran his tanker aground in the cold, cold waters and rocky shoals and shores of the shallower and much smaller Prince William Sound.

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40. 

    alex said on July 30, 2010 at 5:57 pm

    Re: What to do with fresh tomatoes and corn, above

    Don’t know about the corn, but tonight having fresh tomatoes and abundant basil out of the garden sauteed with prosciutto and mushrooms and tossed on pasta. Good hot or cold.

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41. 

    prospero said on July 30, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    ROGirl:

    My point exactly and half of America takes his bullshit into the voting booth with them. Of course he shouldn’t affect voting but he does. As do Beck and every other idiot Fox broadcasts telling abject lies all day at every hour.

    Check out the FCC Charter. There’s actually no way these mendacious turds should have a license.

    Re Rush: When he pulled the White House dog bidness, my daughter was 13 too. Bill Clinton was proscribed by position from just beating the shit out of the asshole, but, really, wouldn’t that have been the first impulse for any dad? I can honestly say I would have beaten him to a gasaeous pulp.

    Aside from the exceptionally vexing, I know Nancy thinks Iggy’s the shit (and I think Stooges were nobly failed Ramones), but I grew up in Detroit and SRC and MC5 were better. Probably, Seger System was too. Anyway, we went whenever possible to the Chessmate club at 6th and Livernois to get frisked and see John Lee. Two doors with buzzers. One way or another, that is Detroit music. So I just got this Hooker tribute album called From Clarksdale to Heaven. John Lee Hooker songs played by Gary Brooker, Jeff Beck, Mick, Peter fing Green, Jack fing Bruce, and guitar-slinging Andy Fairweather Booga-Rooga Lowe, and a cast of thousands. This is an album all y’all should get ahold of. Oh, and a version with the man himself (with Booker T) of Red House that Jimi would have probably envied. Awe-inspiring. Best record I’ve heard this year, by a mile.

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42. 

    prospero said on July 30, 2010 at 6:28 pm

    What to do with too many fresh tomatoes is chop them in quarters, put them in a plastic bag with basil, fresh garlic, salt , pepper, olive oil, good vinegar. Toss and roast for a while. Then you put everything into the Cuisinart. What results is the best tomato sauce you can freeze, basically, forever, but, for sure, all winter long.

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43. 

    prospero said on July 30, 2010 at 6:39 pm

    Oh. and Mick Taylor, the guy that escaped the Stones young without drowning in suspicious circumstances, is on that record too. They are all still records, right? They had to be recorded.

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44. 

    MarkH said on July 30, 2010 at 7:12 pm

    Makes sense, paddy. The differences in the type of water, the climate, appear to be in favor of a shorter healing time; years perhaps, but not four or five decades.

    You realize of course, you now have to post stories here at nn.c from your sojourn to the gulf. There should be lots of angles to report on from your guv’mint position.

    BTW, congrats for landing on your feet after the demise of one of my all-time favorite newspapers. Which brings this question: why is the website still up and who maintains it? In any case, a nice memorial.

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/

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45. 

    deb said on July 30, 2010 at 7:52 pm

    Still looking for a corn/tomato recipe? Try Jan’s.

    Marinate a pound of chopped tomatoes in 2 T. olive oil, 1 T. cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Cook 1 cup chopped red onion in 2 T. butter with salt and pepper until golden. Add 4 cups of fresh corn kernels and saute another 5 minutes. Cool, then toss with tomatoes and chopped basil and chives. Haven’t tried this, but it sounds sublime. Something to look forward to when I can have carbs again.

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46. 

    crinoidgirl said on July 30, 2010 at 8:15 pm

    I was in Denver one to two months out of the year, every year, for the 90s, and the paper I always read was the Rocky Mountain News. I miss it.

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47. 

    prospero said on July 30, 2010 at 8:33 pm

    sealilly,

    When I went to UGA, the J school had a reading room with subscriptions to just about every paper in the US, including Rocky Mountain News. Great paper. I got to be a devotee, and loved Sacbee, The State, and the Courier-Journal, too. Hell, that long ago, Reg Murphy ran the Atlanta paper in the style of Ralph McGill. Ain’t that a man. Those were good days for newspapers, and if it’s all interet all the time, everybody’s lost a piece of their heart. And soul.

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48. 

    Dexter said on July 31, 2010 at 1:01 am

    I went to a wedding last year held in the bride’s parents’ living room. Poverty was not the issue; the bride’s dad was dying of cancer and the family wanted to have dad there. The groom and bride have lived in Knoxville for years and have two kids, and last year decided to get hitched so dad could be there for it.
    The bride was married while barefoot , the groom wore a suit and tie, a local preacher performed the rituals.
    My wife said it was the most beautiful wedding she had ever been to. The reception was held right there, KFC carryout, wedding cake…and then we were all kicked out as the bride’s dad needed to get into bed right away. He passed a few months later.
    They’re still married.

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49. 

    Linda said on July 31, 2010 at 8:08 am

    You spoke too soon, Nance–it’s one wedding:
    http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38495817/ns/today-entertainment/

    And whoever picked “not even a day” in the office pool can pick up their cash.

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50. 

    ROgirl said on July 31, 2010 at 10:32 am

    I can’t wait for the recriminations from the Bristol and Levi camps to start! There should be a drinking game: every time one of them blames the media you have to do a shot.

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51. 

    coozledad said on July 31, 2010 at 10:56 am

    This is from Sarah’s website:
    http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/teabaggers_are_not_racist/

    Ain’t it cute?
    It’d be funny if it weren’t a “discrete” call for violence at the polls. Straight out of the Milosevic playbook.

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52. 

    basset said on July 31, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    Cynthia, thanks for the recipe… works real well with cheddar too. Just had some. Couple of those, some new potatoes, some fresh asparagus, a little wine… just the right dinner to prepare for the polka in about an hour 🙂

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53. 

    Deborah said on July 31, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    Dexter, that’s a moving story, it had me sniffling.
    And all the tomato and corn recipes have my mouth watering. Can’t wait to try some.
    Just had a batch of pesto with guests tonight. Little Bird makes the best pesto, we bought 3 bunches of basil at the market this morning and she whipped it up this afternoon. All I do is wash, dry and detach the basil leaves from the stems for her, she uses olive oil, parmesan cheese and pine nuts and a little garlic in a food processor. When she’s really energetic she uses a mortar and pestle to grind the basil. My husband is completely addicted to her pesto.

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54. 

    Dexter said on July 31, 2010 at 10:07 pm

    Thanks Deborah.
    I have making stir fry the last three days, different combos of summer squash, zucchini, new onions, local tomatoes, sweet yellow peppers and some little hot peppers, also. Dessert as well as breakfast has been Indiana melons. The one I bought in Auburn at the Log Cabin Market was the best muskmelon I have had in years. The available watermelon has also been great. I use all kinds of regular powdered spices, and I dump a lot of curry powder in the pan too.
    Tonight’s creation included little squares of last night’s pizza , seared in the pan in olive oil and just stirred into the mix with extra julienne strips of fresh yellow peppers. Hey, as my English friend would say, it got et.

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55. 

    paddyo' said on July 31, 2010 at 10:44 pm

    Dateline, New Orleans, where I just had sushi at a pretty good place on Decatur with a bunch of fellow federales . . . arrived this afternoon in 95-degree, 95-humidity heat . . . but our workplace, the “Unified Area Command” HQ, is a couple of air-conditioned floors in a downtown office building. A very far cry from the Nola I hung out in for the first eight days after Katrina hit.

    MarkH @ 44, just to set the record straight: I wasn’t a survivor of the Rocky’s demise. When I came to Denver 21 years ago, I came to work for the DenPost, in the thick of the great, late and lamented “war” with the Rocky. I stayed there eight years. But I have friends, acquaintances and friendly competitors who lost their jobs when the Rocky folded, and newspapering in Denver is poorer with its passing.

    P.S. — I forget if leaving the Rocky’s website up was a Scripps-Howard move to mollify historians or something else, but yeah, they essentially froze it in time and, last time I looked, hadn’t done anything to the website since that day. A few alumni from the paper tried to make an online paper work, a la Seattle P-I or Tucson Citizen, but not enough juice and not enough subscribers (I was one) and now it’s just a headline service with a smattering of original content by journalistic cobblers who must have other day jobs.

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    Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 31, 2010 at 11:49 pm

    Ah, wedding stories in camo and other not so appropriate fabrics — I have so many, but there’s just no way to be professionally appropriate and tell them. Metallic dresses and eyeliner, velours that took impressions far too well, and mossy oak, mil-cam, and blaze orange in the bouquet as well as on the bridesmaids.

    Every wedding, as well as every marriage, is a great mystery. But best wishes and prayers for happiness to the Mezvinsky’s, and confusion to the paparazzi, root and branch.

    Brian et alia, I’ve posted yesterday and today far too many pictures on Facebook (as is not unusual), but in this case justified by new trails and interpretive sites & structures at the Antietam battlefield. It’s a quieter, more contemplative place for all its historic horror . . . plus my gr-gr-grandfather fought there, so I’m historically and sentimentally biased.

    (from yesterday’s thread) CrinoidGirl — yes, in the Nat’l Museum of Natural History, one floor down from the much more photographed Hope Diamond, but we know better! I went nuts taking pics of the Burgess Shale fossils, too.

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    brian stouder said on August 1, 2010 at 12:44 am

    inter­pre­tive sites & struc­tures at the Anti­etam bat­tle­field. It’s a qui­eter, more con­tem­pla­tive place for all its his­toric hor­ror

    Agreed; the whole vibe there, at Antietam, is very different than Gettysburg (for example). Whereas Gettysburg is a sort of mix of campy glitz and glorification, along with serious minded, principled memorialization, Antietam is much more…introspective; more searching and ambiguous. And indeed – although Gettysburg got the great Lincoln address, Antietam has the single best photo (in my opinion) of President Lincoln gazing at his diminutive commanding general.

    Speaking of “interpretive sites & structures”, a few years ago my son and some friends and I spent the night on the Piper Farm, which was a B&B at that time (last I knew, it wasn’t, anymore). The sunken lane (ie – “Bloody Lane”) is on Henry Piper’s farm, and while I’m not a Ghosts & Goblins kind of guy, let me just say, it gets very, very dark at night there.

    But you reminded me of a striking thing there. I was asking the woman who ran the place what the various outbuildings were on the farm; there was a smoke house and a summer kitchen, and of course the cellar and the barn….and there was one more building, right near the house. When I asked what that one was, she said “Slave quarters” – without missing a beat. It was being used to store maintenance equipment, at that time (maybe 1998?).

    The National Park was certainly missing a huge, huge “interpretive site and structure” opportunity there, at that time.

    I recall also being struck by the beauty of that whole area – with the Blue Ridge looming in the distance, and the rolling countryside and beautiful little town of Sharpsburg. Years earlier, in 1992, Pam and I (not yet married) visited that place, on the 130th anniversary of the single bloodiest day in all of American history (and most of that before 11 in the morning), and being utterly beguiled (both by Western Maryland and by Pam!).

    Aside from walking all around the National Battlefield Park (Indiana has memorial markers at all the big battlefields that I’ve been to; and it is always affecting to find and read them), I recall visiting a WalMart in Hagerstown, which had a refrigerated semi trailer in the out-lot, advertising that you could see a dead whale for fifty cents. So, I paid my fifty cents and saw the dead whale in the outlot of the WalMart in Hagerstown.

    (make whatever metaphor of that you please!)

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    Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 1, 2010 at 7:47 am

    The Piper Farm is, I understood, now in the hands of NPS but is not in condition to be worked into the interpretation, just as the Roulette Farm has been in the possession of NPS for a decade, but only just got a trail and waysides after the exteriors were made period-appropriate. They will certainly make use of the slave quarters as an opportunity; they recently opened the Pry House as a look at field hospitals, with Gen’l Richardson’s bedroom reconstructed to 1862 appearance (Richardson survived his wounds at Bloody Lane, but died of pneumonia 6 weeks later after getting a visit from Lincoln as part of the McClellan summit; the Pry House grounds were Little Mac’s HQ from the 15th through October and his sacking). The docents there were full of praise for the superintendent and the staff, not always the case.

    I was a bit jealous when you first told the Piper Farm story, Brian, because I’d love to stay there, but the B&B is no more.

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    Connie said on August 1, 2010 at 9:33 am

    Yo, Alex, when I saw Tony and Tina’s Wedding in San Fran, all I got was Grandma asking me to show her baby pictures. Although the very big and busty bridesmaid did try to pick up my husband.

    Just back from a lovely week in Leelanau County. You newspaper folks might be interested in the job ad I saw: Editor for the Leelanau Enterprise, supervises two reporters, copy editing experience preferred. I have been reading the Enterprise for years and have always thought they do an excellent job of covering local government (townships!), politics, business, and news. And you know what they say: “Live by the Bay on half the pay.”

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    Deborah said on August 1, 2010 at 11:38 am

    I am having a problem that I could use your advice about if you’ve got any. I bought my cats a new litter box yesterday and they won’t use it. I had already disposed of the last litter in their old box and it can’t be retrieved because we have a trash chute in our building. It’s a new fangled box that they enter from the top instead of the side. We tried placing them on the perch part at the top but they seem frightened to death of it. And one of them promptly urinated on the carpet. Any advice would be appreciated.

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    Connie said on August 1, 2010 at 11:58 am

    Just found this great sounding tomato recipe on Salon: Summer tomato pasta with greens and onion. http://www.salon.com/food/eyewitness_cook/index.html?story=/food/francis_lam/2010/07/30/summer_tomato_pasta

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    Deborah said on August 1, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    Update on the cat situation, in case any of you are interested in my cats’ elimination habits. I went to the pet store and bought some Urine Destroyer to put on the carpet and something called Litter Attracter that you sprinkle on the litter. When I opened up the box to apply the sprinkles, at least one of the cats had finally used it! Hurray. Problem solved (hopefully).

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    nancy said on August 1, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    I ended up grilling six ears of sweet corn and tossing them with yellow grape tomatoes, new red onion sliced very thin, basil, EVOO, balsamic and some goat cheese from Zingerman’s. The grape tomatoes were at a flower stand, but the proprietor had put a bowl of them out with a sign: TRY. SWEET! They were.

    The other side was a fresh bean gratin from Alice Waters — pintos, along with more fresh tomatoes, some kale, lots of garlic and onions, then finished in the oven with bread crumbs on the top.

    Grilled steaks.

    The guests brought hummus and tabouli and a baked brie to start, and we had blueberry-peach pie for dessert.

    You should have been there!

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    brian stouder said on August 1, 2010 at 1:52 pm

    Sounds marvelous! For Sunday dinner we did grilled t-bones and baked potatoes and breaded-fried zuchini (spelling?) slices, and green beans with chunks of bacon. Your Sunday dinner update made me laugh because the first thing Pam said was “We should have gotten sweet corn” – prompting both of us to smack our heads!

    Jeff, Steven Sears’ “Landscape Turned Red” is an absolutely wonderful book. It is one of the very few books I’ve re-read, before our last trip to Antietam.

    And another gem is a photographic collection by William Frassanito titled “Antietam”, where he takes the historic photos (mostly by Gardener) of the aftermath of the battle and compares to modern* photos; the book is strangely enthralling, especially when you’ve just been there. (and he has another similar book focused on Gettysburg).

    In 1992, Pry House was privately owned, and one could not go over there. In 1998 it was NPS owned, but they hadn’t done anything with it yet. We have some marvelous pictures (circa 1992) of Pam on a stone wall near the family cemetary at the Mumma Farm (with the blue-grey Blue Ridge in the background), and Pam in the observation tower at the end of Bloody Lane (with the blue-grey Blue Ridge in the background), and a distant shot of Pam standing in the middle of “Burnside’s Bridge”, taken from where the rebels were shooting at them (I forget the name of the commander there – who became a CSA cabinet member…). Back in those days, Pam’s rule was that any picture had to have one of us in it(!); she has relaxed that rule in the intervening years

    *”modern” = circa 1979 or so

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    Deborah said on August 1, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    Nancy I’d love that bean gratin recipe. I looked it up on-line but can’t find it.

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      nancy said on August 1, 2010 at 2:16 pm

      It’s in “Chez Panisse Vegetables.” Give me a day, and I’ll copy it down for you’s.

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    Kristen said on August 1, 2010 at 4:53 pm

    Okay, it’s a little bit of work, but you won’t regret it:

    http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/08/tomato-and-corn-pie/

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    Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 1, 2010 at 10:54 pm

    Brian, glad to know there’s another person geeky enough to both own and have read the Frassanito books on Gettysburg and Antietam . . . and find them exciting! Which I surely do. Got ’em for my father-in-law, who is engineer enough to find his methods fascinating.

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68. 

    Dexter said on August 2, 2010 at 1:34 am

    Well, now. It looks as though Adolf is doing just fine for himself.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3YRWhg4YaA&feature=player_embedded

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69. 

    prospero said on August 2, 2010 at 3:37 am

    Y’all see the oldest continually operating farm in American history is giving up the ghost. It wasn’t the death tax that laid it to rest, was the low spark of high-heeled boys. Like Archer Daniel Midland. Anecdotes, shamecdotes, Drudge and Beck and the Freepers will pick this up. They’ll be lying like Breitbart.

    Corporate Ag put family farmers into a downward spiral from junior partners to indentured servants to sharecroppers, while Congress funded corporate welfare Caligula would have found embarrassing. What family farm ever succumbed to the estate tax?

    I find this morally repugnant and exceptionally unpatriotic, and it certainly is a blight on free enterprise, and I understand that some Democratic politicians colluded. But there were never enough Democrats to effect this massive welfare queen scam by the Republicans to effect this abomination without the treasonous filibuster behavior.

    It is treasonous, because it corrodes the Constitution and the idea of the rule of majority, and basically imposes some sort of twisted and unaccaountable House of Lords on American People. If there were a way consistent with the anti-Republican and unConstitutional Senate rules to make these shameless anonymous assholes have to stand up and spend hours explaining why they don’t give a shit about unemployed people, uninsured people, poor people, people of a different skin color, I’d say make them stand up and give that garbage a try.

    As American politics seems to meet some abyss where it’s progressive vs. populism, I’d say if you don’t know which side is legitimate, you’re probably too goddamn stupid to be allowed to vote. Charlie Rangel’s a bone of contention? Mitch McConnell did the exact thing for way bigger cash at UK. In neither case is there any evidence of any benefit to the donee. But I tell you what, who’s done more for Americans and who’s grubbed like a mole for his own enrichment?

    That’s another one of those poll questions y’all ought to be asked? Trent Lott basically invented this alleged offense, and, despite being a racist creep and incredibly slimy on campaign finances, nobody ever even brought this up. As far as taxes are concerned, what Rangel’s been notoriously accused by Republicans of isn’t close to tax evasion, nobody ever gets close to prosecution of any sort, and, if the IRS proves a tax burden, paid, no har no foul.

    So, yeah, it’s a witch hunt. It’s like the Kerry’s yacht shit. How ’bout that Duke-stir? Kerry bought his. Cunningham had his given to him by a bunch orf Rove oppo experts with ties to both Enron and Halliburton. Not to be too sardonic, but hair on fire, asshole.

    This may seem to be nitpicking, but it isn’t. You cannot equate the billions in cash stolen by Halliburton in Iraq when the self-appointed VP that had his fist up Uncurious George’s butt and his portfolio and net worth growing with every $1mil pallette disappearing with anything. It’s unheard of. Was the PNAC point just stealing cash?

    Was it stealing oil, I mean, Saddam sure thought so, and it’s not implausible. But really. How fucking stupid to you have to be not to understand peak oil? As much a fact as global climate change.

    Do Teabaggers believe there are Captains of Industry that are nudged by a benevolent hand to make things turn out all right for them instead of treating them like malleable fodder for making them poorer while they get richer?

    If the electorate is stupid enough to be convinced of this delusion, then what’s the conceivable value of voting?I suppose this makes me susceptible to being accused of elitism, and I’m not suggesting my opinion is more valid or more rational than anybody else’s, but seriously.

    If experts in science don’t count because Michael Crichton defies basically indisputable science, some whackjob like Sam Brownback gives this non-science a public and political imprimatur, and people that don’t believe in carbon dating decide it’s not consistent with the Old Testament, how should this sort of insanity affect national policy? But it does.

    On the other hand, expecting the President to pull a sorceror’s apprentice and just turn all of this idiocy around without doing it incrementally is grossly unfair and spectacularly counter-productive. “Conservatives”, and the appellation is ridiculous, because, there aren’t any anymore, have collapsed into a pudding of nitwits in Congress with no idea but abject opposition and people that insist that the government needs to keep it’s hands off their Medicare.

    Far as Conservatives are concerned. There were once guys like Buckley and JJ Kilpatrick and Safire that could think their ways out of paper bags that knew trickle-down was horseshit. George Will sorta thought so, but he was hedging his bets. He does not know shit about baseball. Anyway, “Conservatives” must feel proud that they’re represented by Breitbart and Drudge.

    This is what the President faces, and, holy shit, people actually take this seriously. So when you voice your disapproval of the lack of a public option (which was never any part of any campaign proposal) you let these assholes count you as opponents of health care reform. In my opinion, this is not a case of settling for better than nothing. It’s fairly amazing change accomplished in no time. Against astoundingly obtuse, nihilistic political opposition.

    If you all, progessives, I don’t know, insist on instant remedies and everything perfect like there were a magic wand, buy some leather jackets and tommy-guns. Won’t happen instantly. Nobody but Ben Spock and Gov. Dean ever said it will. And neither one of those guys probably knew it, but they were lying.

    Sorry for running on, but the current deranged state of American politics is on my nerves. When you read poll numbers, you have to be an idiot not to understand that all of the Progressives dissatisfied with undeniable progress made so far aren’t satisfied. Do you understand the sort of ammunition you’re giving to pollsters and backbiting so-called, self-proclaimed liberal websites like Politico and asshole know-it-alls like Chris Cilizza.

    It didn’t all turn out immediately like Alice in Wonderland. It’s moved several miles towards American people and their rights. If you don’t see that, just how is it possible that an intelligent American voter doesn’t understand that nothing changes on a dime? Even if you hold your breath until you turn blue? I know nobody’s read this far, so I’ll repeat my claim that, from the left, instant gratification is in play here.

    I’ve had personal experience with Ralph Nader. He’s vindictive solipsistic, venal, and deliberately hurtful to people that had been devoted to him. Not to me. I thought he was a self-centered ahole first time I met him, and I had nothing to do with him. . It’s my feeling he meant to undermine Gore for his own purposes in 2000, and he did it. What his purposes may have been are buried in his sociopathic mind.

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    prospero said on August 2, 2010 at 4:00 am

    Another thing occurs to me, that would be funny if it weren’t so sad. The Republican take is that with Geithner etc., Democrats are in bed with Wall Street. Please. Is there an American voter that doesn’t understand innately that Wall Street, fund managers, all of these voracious, predatory crooks did not enrich Republicans? Could Enron have run the scam bigger and more damaging than Madoff? Could Halliburton have defrauded the government and the people while enriching the VP, I mean stealing whole pallettes of cash, without Cheney knowing about this?

    It’s not like he might have benefitted from the outright thefts of cash. He has for a fact been enriched by bogus contracts, shoddy work, and outright theft of massive amounts of cash. They electrocuted American soldiers, and they got paid a ridiculous amount for it, most of which they stole. They charged for gasoline for tankers filled with sand. These things are facts. Who engineered that shit?

    In the long run, if Cheney gets away with his spectacular crimes against the Constitution and human rights, and, boy, if you try to claim that isn’t true you’re an unmitigated liar and asshole, I’ll still wish he wasn’t a pitiful little weasel you couldn’t actually feel good about beating the shit out of.

    I don’t know. Maybe people are that fucking dumb.

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    prospero said on August 2, 2010 at 4:18 am

    Making no excuses for Rangel, how in the world did this differ from Mitch McConnel’s behavior. Oh, Don Blankenship, dead miners, buying a State Supreme Court judge, and systematically trashing the Appalachian and East Coast aquifer for cash. That’s a whole lot more Republican. Why not gouge the eye when you fuck the people over for profit. My friend Rana. Here’s where the difference comes into play.

    Filling in hollers by mountaintop mining will eventually destroy the aquifer that provides pure water to the entire east coast. Republicans would ignore this fact in the interest of private profit.You could not find a Democratic politician in Appalachia that would sign on for this shit. They might be on the wrong side of DADT. They wouldn’t poison a watershed. If you don’t see a difference, I guess you just don’t want to. There is a major league difference.

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    prospero said on August 2, 2010 at 9:00 am

    Anyway, adieu. I’ve been a total asshole and a poor guest. So adios, adieu.

    Yah ta hey.

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    brian stouder said on August 2, 2010 at 10:29 am

    Quite the contrary; you vented – I was nodding, and oh look! – Nance has posted her latest entry, and she touches on something that has bothered me to no end (here in Fort Wayne): our local minor-league right wing rabble rousers always spit out the term “Guhmint Motors” when referring to GM, and conveniently skip past the fact that Allen County has a realtively new GM pickup truck plant that not only employs several thousand workers, but it added a shift(!) – or another several hundred people.

    By God, these folks on the local radio – who depend on advertsing dollars and a vibrant local economy, owe their fat asses to United States Government (legislative and executive) intervention.

    Hell – as far as that goes, the plant wouldn’t even BE there if not for earlier govenrmental inducements from the state, county, and city.

    And as far as that goes, how many cars of any sort would sell, if not for government built and maintained roads and highways?

    “Government Motors” is a brilliant, shining example of the essentially irrational nature of the rightwing yip-yip dogs.

    There, Prospero, now we can BOTH be thrown out!

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