Over hard.

It was one of those ai-yi-yi sorts of days, punctuated with some bright spots. I am seeing, just in glimpses and just at the outermost periphery of my vision, some glimpses of clarity. But like the bright elusive butterfly of love, it refuses to be captured. When I look for it, I can’t find it. When I’m not, THERE IT IS. For just an instant.

I will take this as a good sign.

Hit the weight room at the end of it, because sometimes, that’s what you have to do — pump iron. Lately, I’m digging the Jammer in the weight room. All the college students are out and back in the gym now, clanging plates around and making all kinds of noise. I like to bring my schvitzing old ass right in the middle of them. Get used to granny, kids.

So let’s make this short and sweet and picture-ific.

I’m trying to eat more vegetables, without going to too much trouble. This is becoming a favorite lunch/breakfast — shakshuka. Or, in this case, Extremely Low-Rent Shakshuka:

shakshuka

You make a little tomato sauce, get it how you like it, then drop a couple of eggs on top and cover the pan. When the eggs are done, you have a wonderful lunch, with protein and a cup or so of veg. You can season it hot or mild, add whatever you want. This one was spicy. The one I made for lunch today was mostly black beans. And that is how you console yourself as an at-home worker, at charge of your own lunch.

I’m sorry, but this just cracks me up:

geraldford

Gerald Ford, spending a summer on Mackinac. It’s a piece from ArtPrize, called “Our President,” and the thought of it menacing tourists for the season is simply hilarious.

The Atlantic’s photo blog collection of tornado photos from Oklahoma.

Will this week ever end? We’ll see. But we’re now over the hump.

Posted at 12:30 am in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

67 responses to “Over hard.”

  1. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 12:54 am

    Alert secret service agents took the house and statuary down.

    People will be claiming on the Worldwide Sports Destroyer that the Pacers v. Heat game was some sort of classic. Bullshit. Classic David Stern officiating. The phantom foul on the Bosh putback where he went over two backs kept the bastards in the game. It is revolting to watch shit like that if you’ve ever played a competitive sport.

    That Gerry bust is soon to be a major Pixar release. The perfect voice would be Andre, but he had too much personal style grace and intelligence to stoop to Gerry Ford, the only guy that ever sold a pardon for a presidency. Andre would have preferred brewskis. I still believe that active journalists that think they have something to fear from the Obama administration must be a weaselly and cowardly lot. Why. Just try to keep some sort of reasonable Journalistic ethics in play, you’ll be fine.

    And are you sure that is not photoshopped? You know the old stories about women scared by horses? That is scary as shit, and I once ended up in an open grave in a graveyard in Salem Mass while I was tripping.

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  2. Sherri said on May 23, 2013 at 1:10 am

    Pumping iron is the best thing around as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been lifting twice a week religiously for the last two and a half years, and I feel better than I’ve felt in years. Amazing how much getting stronger helps with all those little aches and pains.

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  3. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 3:57 am

    That’s a nice way to make a fritata, I’d toss in some pickled garlic and some pepperoni slices and some grated cheese, of some good sort. Sherri weights are good but a bike is better. But you may be way correct on this subject, since your sports knowledge is nearly equal to mine. When the tough get going, that ahole from Miami tries to act like that play for pay went on in equals the SEC. Nobody with a brain believes that’s true. Actually, you might know more than I do about this shit, and it’s actually more than I care to know. I just want to watch them run out and play. UGA don’t cheat and that is a fact. First woman that actually scared me in a while. Nancy should, but she loves bunnies. I can’t win here. Sherri knows almost as much about sports as I do. She did say UGA couldn’t possibly play Bama Red Elephants. And that turned out to be pure unadulterated luck for the Red Elephants. That is their name. Why are they embarrassed? Sherri also made derogatory comments about the Bruins’ power play, but in the Stanley Cup game, that doesn’t really matter like goalkeepers, and Tuka Raask is better. Goodbye Rangers. This bullshit in Miami is hand over the first game to LeBron. That is fucking odious.

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  4. Deborah said on May 23, 2013 at 5:26 am

    That egg dish is definitely something I will try. It’s about 3:30am and I have insomnia again. I thought I would sleep really well after a day of gardening, but no. That Gerry Ford sculpture is hilarious.

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  5. ROGirl said on May 23, 2013 at 6:34 am

    When bad art attacks! From the bio on the Ford sculptor: Thomas J. Moran is a welder by trade. He has no formal training in art or sculpture, just a driving passion of creativity.

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  6. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 23, 2013 at 6:47 am

    Ever made Mario Batali’s “Eggs in Hell”? I’ll look for the recipe.

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  7. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 23, 2013 at 6:48 am

    More fun name: U’Ova All’Inforno.

    http://www.mariobatali.com/recipes_eggsinhell.cfm

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  8. basset said on May 23, 2013 at 7:18 am

    That Ford sculpture’s nearly as bad as the fiberglass Nathan Bedford Forrest, sometimes known as the Hamburglar, next to I-65 on the way into Nashville:

    http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/3289

    At least the Ford’s temporary. Forrest ain’t goin’ nowhere, proud expression of the landowner’s Southernness and all that.

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  9. coozledad said on May 23, 2013 at 7:49 am

    While the Gerald Ford statue is trying to remember whether he pardoned Nixon or just chopped one off in his shorts, Bedford Forrest’s statue is clearly stealing a horse to fuck it at gunpoint. Historically correct!
    Bedford looks sort of like the demon dictating the book of Revelation to St. John in Dieric Bouts’ painting:
    http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/dirk-bouts/saint-john-the-evangelist-on-patmos#supersized-artistPaintings-267077

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  10. alex said on May 23, 2013 at 8:17 am

    Lovely little frock Forrest is wearing and its above-the-knee hemline is perfect with the go-go boots. Cinching it with the belt is a big fashion faux pas, however.

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  11. Scout said on May 23, 2013 at 8:21 am

    It’s early, but Alex ftw.

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  12. Deborah said on May 23, 2013 at 8:26 am

    Tom + Lorenzo + Alex

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  13. Dorothy said on May 23, 2013 at 9:06 am

    My we are a lively bunch for this early in the morning!

    Yesterday really was an ai-yi-yi day for many people including moi. There was only one piece of shrimp in my sweet and sour shrimp yesterday when I was treating a co-worker for lunch. I opened up all the other pieces and all we could see was some grey-ish breading with no shrimp (I just happened to eat the only piece of shrimp first.) Then the lady at the register argued with me that the reason there was no shrimp was because I ATE IT ALL! I told her my friend would tell her otherwise because she was with me and witnessed the whole ‘reveal.’ She wasn’t having it so only grudgingly gave me half off my meal since I did eat the vegetables and rice. Bitch.

    Then we stopped quickly for something at K-Mart before heading back to work. And walking behind the cash registers was this loud woman who had a baby in a car seat inside her shopping cart, and a 2 or 3 year old boy walking sullenly beside her. An employee was telling her she had to stop and talk to a manager before she could leave the store, and the lady was yelling back “I’M NOT TALKING TO ANYONE. YOU CAN’T STOP ME. I’M LEAVING NOW!” Everyone was staring of course. She circled the cash register area and started yelling at the boy “THIS IS YOUR FAULT! DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU CAUSED?!” We had no clue what happened but she was really reaming out the little boy. She stormed out the door, and as soon as the door closed behind her she yanked the arm of her grandson extremely hard, and he nearly fell over. My co-worker said “That’s it – I’m going out to say something to her.” At that point, the lady in front of me, who was in a shopping cart/wheel chair combo could not find her wallet to pay for her items. She was quite panicked. She started to back up her ride, nearly crushing my toes. We got her straightened out (never did find out if the poor thing found her wallet), and my friend came back inside, red-faced, saying the lady screamed and yelled at her to mind her own business when my friend told her that she’d call the police and/or Child Protection Services if she treated her grandson like that again.

    So THEN I get a text message from my husband CALL ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. It’s at that point when I glanced at my phone that I saw my son had texted around 11:30 that his plane got cancelled due to mechanical difficulties. This was the day he was supposed to leave the country. I called my husband as we walked to my car and before I could even say hello to him, Crazy Grandma is yelling at me from two stores away from K-Mart: DON’T YOU COME NEAR ME! YOU STAY AWAY FROM ME! SHE THREATENED ME AND I CAN CALL THE COPS TOO! (she was referring to my friend.) I exchanged a few words with her that were not really pleasant conversation and I looked at the little boy, who was thisclose to crying and said “Oh honey, God bless you, I hope you get home safely today.” And Crazy Grandma yells “I’M A CHRISTIAN TOO! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!”

    Finally got to find out what was so urgent with hubby. The pharmaceutical company that provides meds at the nursing home where his aunt lives called him, threatening to stop giving her medications if we didn’t pay the outstanding balance (well over a thousand dollars.) We’ve complained/told them during conference calls/written letters that since she is retired military, all of her medications SHOULD be coming from the VA and NOT inside the nursing home. We were told up front that this would not be a problem. But then they changed systems and have never once billed the VA. Mike called our attorney who told him to get everything in writing, and to send letters to a couple of different places, including the Council on Aging (or something like that) in Pennsylvania. Mike wants this asshole who called him to lose his job for threatening to stop medicating an 87 year old woman.

    Okay who else had this kind of a day yesterday?! (Josh is on the ground in Mississippi until Saturday, likely.)

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  14. Julie Robinson said on May 23, 2013 at 9:07 am

    No formal art training? I never would have guessed. Actually, I never would have guessed it was supposed to be Ford.

    I have some freshly made spaghetti sauce in the frig, so hello lunch.

    Jolene, I’m so sorry that you need such nasty treatments but what a relief that they will cure you. I will, as my Quaker friend says, hold you in the light.

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  15. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 23, 2013 at 9:16 am

    Dorothy, it sounds like you live barely a half hour away from me. Oh, wait . . .

    Boo-yah to Quaker spirituality. More light to you, Jolene!

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  16. Peter said on May 23, 2013 at 9:24 am

    Woo, Dorothy, that was one bad day. So bad I had a hard time picking the worst part – was it ballistic homicidal Grandma (no, not Sarah Palin), or was it I goofed up the billing so I’m withholding your Aunt’s meds?

    I will say I’m going to keep in mind what you said to the little boy for future encounters with crazies – sometimes you got to shame them into shape.

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  17. nancy said on May 23, 2013 at 9:29 am

    Dorothy, last year a teenager here was shot to death by his grandmother during a family argument. Apparently his mother had moved to Arizona to tend to her very sick daughter, and it was decided that rather than pull the boy out of his last year of high school, he could finish the year while living at grandma’s apartment, who lived nearby. The shooting was partly recorded by his 911 call, the kid gasping for air, telling the operator that his grandmother had just shot him, while she pursued him through the apartment and finished him off.

    The trial was held, and the grandmother claimed he was threatening her and she feared for her life. The jury didn’t buy it, and she was convicted. At the sentencing, her daughter came and gave a statement. She talked about hearing her mother screaming at her grandson on the 911 recording, and said something like “that was the sound of my childhood,” that she’d hesitated to leave her son with him, but it seemed the best solution to her quandary. She thought the old bat had mellowed at age 75. Evidently she hadn’t.

    Here’s hoping that little boy’s mother doesn’t have to learn that lesson.

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  18. Dorothy said on May 23, 2013 at 9:34 am

    Jolene I’m so sorry I didn’t realize you had shared some more information with us all yesterday. I don’t always go back and check comments in the evening. I apologize for not acknowledging your news! I will be thinking of you and hoping you have a relatively smooth treatment course. If you’re willing to share your contact info via Nancy privately, I would love to keep an eye out for a cunning scarf to add to your collection!

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  19. Dorothy said on May 23, 2013 at 9:37 am

    Oh Nancy – what a story. I did really start to think maybe we should have called the authorities and told them everything we saw. My friend and I both agreed the mother of the children might not have a clue how she was treating the kids while she had them. It’s giving me awful guilt pangs today and in retrospect, I really think between what we witnessed, and whatever happened inside K-Mart that the employees saw, maybe there really was something serious going on. I’m such a Pollyanna sometimes, assuming most people are good, and maybe the little boy knocked over a display or something and the grandmother was embarrassed. I guess we’ll never know. But I think I’ll be on hyper-alert from now on if I see something like this again.

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  20. LAMary said on May 23, 2013 at 9:39 am

    Since someone already mentioned eggs in hell, how about divorced eggs?

    http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fried-Eggs-on-Corn-Tortillas-with-Two-Salsas-Huevos-Divorciados-103387

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  21. LAMary said on May 23, 2013 at 9:46 am

    coozledad, Gerald Ford started his political career in the part of Michigan Nancy calls Dutchistan, so that Dutch demon in the Bouts painting may have inspired the welder/artist.

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  22. Julie Robinson said on May 23, 2013 at 9:56 am

    Grandma packing would have been my concern, too. It sounds like she was so amped up there wasn’t any good way to approach her.

    Nursing homes often don’t want to do anything that will take them extra time, like tracking down alternative funding for meds. My MIL was reacting to the detergent they used and was supposed to be getting the mild alternative, but oops, they forgot. SIL ended up taking her clothes home to launder.

    Hope today is better, Dorothy.

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  23. Jolene said on May 23, 2013 at 10:18 am

    Dorothy, what a long list of miserable experiences. I, too, hope you have a better day today. Nancy has my email address; you can get it from her.

    Julie and Jeff, I love the idea of being held in the light. I’m optimistic about how all this will go. Can’t exactly say I’m looking forward to it, but am encouraged by how nice to me everyone at the hospital was last week and by the doctor’s confidence that I’ll be OK when it’s all over.

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  24. Joe K said on May 23, 2013 at 10:21 am

    The tornado pictures are just amazing, how a whole neighbor hood can be gone, and one street over the houses looked untouched. The one that put a lump in my throat was the dog, it just kills me to think of how scared he must have been. Why does that affect me more than seeing the other destruction?
    Pilot Joe

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  25. Kirk said on May 23, 2013 at 10:39 am

    Dorothy, I hope you had at least a couple of glasses of wine when you got home last night.

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  26. Bitter Scribe said on May 23, 2013 at 10:41 am

    That…thing…on the lawn is much more interesting than the real Gerald Ford ever was.

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  27. brian stouder said on May 23, 2013 at 10:52 am

    Joe – you never know what’s gonna grab you. The ‘happy’ photos of the injured teachers carrying the injured children to safety just did me in. In loco parentis, indeed. Jolene – it is very heartening to hear your optimism and positive, forward-looking attitude. Really, it’s the one aspect within which you can assert yourself the most effectively. (and if they give you platelets at some point, then I have another very specific reason to never weenie out on Red Cross when it comes to needle-stickin’ time!)

    Regarding the Ford bust on the lawn; honestly (and not snarkily) my first reaction was “I bet that’s Prospero”

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  28. susan said on May 23, 2013 at 10:54 am

    This is one of my favorite bad art sculptures. And this is my very favorite song about a bad art sculpture. Appropriately, B.B.J. was struck by lightning on June 14, 2010 and burned back down to ashes. So much for graven images, eh?

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  29. velvet goldmine said on May 23, 2013 at 11:27 am

    Prospero, I wouldn’t say bike riding is better — but the combination of biking and lifting is better than lifting (or biking) alone. Biking is non-weight bearing, so the current advice is to combine that aerobic activity with pumpin’ iron, walking, pushups, or the like. (Or just doing the kind of biking where you have to stand on the pedals a lot).

    My egg-and-veggie favorite is migas, which can be as rich or as virtuous as you like. Cook veggies and/or beans, scramble eggs, add salsa and optional cheese, then crumble tortilla chips over the whole mess just before taking off the heat.

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  30. coozledad said on May 23, 2013 at 11:34 am

    Eggs are pretty tasty scrambled with an equal volume of grated Scamorza.
    If you add black olives and fry the egg-cheese mixture on a bed of thinly sliced seared potatoes it’s almost a complete meal.

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  31. Charlotte said on May 23, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    Hmm. All the egg recipes as I’m eating breakfast of reheated rice, oyster mushroom/backyard tatsoi sautee with a soft boiled egg on top. I think I could live on rice, veggies and egg. (Still no morels but we’re looking.) Shashushka is a staple around here on those evenings I one just can’t cope. That and egg drop soup.

    And Jolene — lighting a Virgin of Guadalupe candle for you. I might have left the One True, but I took the V of G with me.

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  32. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 12:21 pm

    Brian, I don’t look anything like that. Not even close. More like Alan Ladd, but taller. Or John Hurt, as my woman companion says. And grayer. And I’d say resistance cords beat weights for a good workout, although I like weights for curls, because I can do them with large weights, and legpresses, for the same reason.

    What I think of immediately when I think about scrambled eggs.

    And I always stand on the pedals, unless I have a couple of cases of brewskis in the panniers.

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  33. LAMary said on May 23, 2013 at 12:23 pm

    I had a poached egg on a cheese bagel with some diced tomatoes, peppers and onions on top. Messy but really good.

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  34. Sherri said on May 23, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    Pros, the CDC recommends strength training, particular as you age: http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/growingstronger/why/

    I find lifting free weights better than resistance bands, because you have to balance and control the weights which means you have to work harder. But I’m also working with a personal trainer, who’s right there to make sure I don’t hurt myself, and who makes sure I vary my workout.

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  35. Basset said on May 23, 2013 at 1:44 pm

    I had to google “tatsoi,” looks like it’d be tasty… And good in a food plot for deer too, brassicas are often used for that purpose.

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  36. Jolene said on May 23, 2013 at 1:56 pm

    The NYT had a piece on shakshuka just a couple of weeks ago. The combination of spices, plus garlic and onion, in this recipe sounds great.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/dining/shakshuka-a-rich-egg-dish-that-satisfies.html?_r=0

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  37. Julie Robinson said on May 23, 2013 at 2:13 pm

    Shakshuka will have to wait one more day. I had a dentist appointment and they told me not to eat for half an hour, so when I saw a shoe sale on the way home I was sidetracked. And then realized I was right next to a little deli I’d been wanting to try. The sandwich I got was named a Calabrian–fresh mozzarella, tomato jam, and spinach on a parmesan bread. My taste buds are very happy.

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  38. brian stouder said on May 23, 2013 at 2:34 pm

    Pros- the scowl on the Ford bust is what struck me; and the association with you was only because over the past week or two your posts have been somewhat….scowley(!)

    Basset – somewhat off the subject, but I recall enjoying a very tasty steak at The Stockyards in Nashville, twenty years ago when Pam and I had been married for one day.

    That place drew a genuinely interesting array of people – business people, families, couples (and newlyweds!)…and at least one group of celebrants (looked like a birthday) that hired in a fairly intimidating-looking stripper with an even more intimidating-looking ‘body man’(isn’t that the term for the guy who follows a senator, for example, and carries her phone and other odds and ends?).

    And finally – last egg I had was mixed into a Chinese entrée of some sort from the place at Five Points (here in Fort Wayne) last week

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  39. Dexter said on May 23, 2013 at 2:40 pm

    Me: Two eggs fried over hard in EVOO, on a plate with a layer of medium salsa, shoved to one side and the other half of the plate filled with thin sliced crispy fried potato and onion. OJ. Two small saucer-size pancakes with cheapo syrup because who can afford maple syrup?

    When I was a kid I didn’t even know what bagels were…TV stars mentioned bagels and lox, and Mom and Dad said it was “what the Jews ate”. Eventually bagels showed up at local markets, I bought some, and now I eat bagels with a schmear of plain cream cheese at least five times a week. I remember a time when most people in the hick-sticks (me!) had never heard of pizza. Dad brought tiny frozen pizzas home in a big bag and baked them like cookies, and gave us kids a couple and they were nasty as hell. In less than 15 years pizza had taken over the country. I’ll say this again: chain pizza, best ever: Godfather’s on North Clinton in Fort Wayne. Best Mom & Pop pizza: Geno’s original joint in Toledo ( near South Avenue). (Right, Linda?) Best memories of pizza with the family over the early years: Alexander’s on E.State in Fort Wayne, which is long-gone, right, Brianstouder?

    The HBO presentation of the 2013 Rock and Roll inductions is a real hoot. Lou Adler and Cheech and Chong, and Don Henley introducing Randy Newman were just heart-warmingly hilarious.
    Jennifer Hudson is so damn skinny these days she passed well as a tribute singer to Donna Summer. I have not even watched the last two hours yet.

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  40. Dexter said on May 23, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    Gerald Ford my ass! That’s Son of Gort. Gort was Klaatu’s little friend.
    http://gtn.sonoma.edu/images/gort1.jpg

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  41. brian stouder said on May 23, 2013 at 3:33 pm

    Dex – I dunno!

    We’re always on West State and thereabouts; Raimondos Pizza (right across from where channel 33 was, and within sight of channel 15), Don Chava’s on Wells, the aforementioned Chinese place at Five Points, Athenia on Coliseum – etc)

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  42. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    Sherri: CDC? I don’t need some gummint bunch to tell me how to be fit. I started up with the bands when I read that Drew Brees was a devotee and had used them to rehab. Great thing about the bands is they are convenient when you’re just sitting on the couch watching TeeVee. Dumbells, not so much. I enjoy lifting free weights, too, much for the klang und sturm, and the general feel of the thing. Dumbells way better than bars. In a gym, I like leg machines, because I can usually do the whole machine and then watch some benchpress bonehead get on and get a hernia from the weight.

    I recall enjoying a very tasty steak at The Stockyards in Nashville, twenty years ago when Pam and I had been married for one day

    I’d suggest you celebrate an anniversary of that experience, Brian. My ex and I still recall moments of that sort. We have a kid and two grandkids after all. Scowley? Generally I’m smiley. But this made up bullshit going around is doing nothing for my sense of humor. Eugene Robinson’s sob-sister act is particularly diheartening. I’m a regullar reader, but where was the prize-winner back in this day?

    http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/03/bushs-attacks-on-press-freedoms.html

    An actual son of Gort:

    http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-03-11/news/0403110227_1_raymond-audrey-caring

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  43. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 4:25 pm

    And Michael Rennie, who played Gort, was a terrific actor. Watch Broken Arrow, in which he had to deal with champeen scenery muncher James Stewart (odious movie actor).

    Holding somebody else to a point of moral perfection is like criticizing another’s grammar or spelling or typing on the internets. You will step in it, looser.

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  44. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 4:36 pm

    As much as I like Hillary and think she’s a spectacularly smart woman, here’s who I’d like to vote for in 2016:

    http://front.moveon.org/the-robert-reich-reality-check-all-of-your-friends-need-to-see/?rc=daily.share

    Smartest man in this country that isn’t Paul Krugman, I believe. Too bad he’s about as tall as Peter Dinklage and not as handsome. And if you haven’t seen The Station Agent yet, why not? Great movie.

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  45. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 4:40 pm

    Why in God’s name would the NRA press this fight?

    http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/lead-05-21-2013.html

    Assholishness? How is lead shot important, Constitutionally? These people are mindless idealogue aholes.

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  46. Charlotte said on May 23, 2013 at 4:46 pm

    Bassett — the brassicias are one of my most reliable early season crops. Plus, I like to grow oddball things I can’t get in the grocery stores. Waiting on the Broccoli Rabe which is looking pretty good. (But had to get a filling replaced, so I’m just sitting here waiting for the feeling to return to my face. No lunch yet.)

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  47. MarkH said on May 23, 2013 at 5:00 pm

    Prospero –

    Michael Rennie play the alien, Klaatu. Lock Martin, frail ex-doorman at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre played Gort, the robot.

    I guess you’re either a Jimmy Stewart fan or you’re not.

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  48. coozledad said on May 23, 2013 at 5:18 pm

    Awww. Bamz just pissed all over the Republicans’ eternal war with________.
    We’ll see how this makes him like Nixon. Or not enough like Nixon .

    He’s lost Chuck “Pubis” Todd AND Medea Benjamin. Who’s going to make baskets handcrafted from human feces to sell on ebay to raise money for the Democrats now, huh?

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  49. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 5:32 pm

    ROGirl@5: Joe the artist.

    MarkH: Michael Remmie is undoubtedly on Bonanza on some cable this pm. My bad, but you didn’t comment on Broken Arrow. A good movie.Pardon me, but I think J Stewart was a horrendous excuse for an actor. His guiding light seemed to be Ronny Raaygun. Too bad he didn’t get one in the bun with the next lady, the way St. Ron did. What a phony.

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  50. Sherri said on May 23, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    Twenty-five years ago, when my husband and I had been married but a few hours, we had a wonderful meal in Nashville at Mario’s, the Italian restaurant on Broadway which, sadly, is no more.

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  51. Dexter said on May 23, 2013 at 5:53 pm

    Ah gee…every time “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” on my TeeVee, I remember the thrill I, as a 17 year old high school kid from Indiana, had when I stared at the monuments in D.C.
    I remember with clarity coming into Washington in a bus, fresh from New York City, at sunset on May 17, 1967, just as the giant memorials had been lighted for the night.
    I love Jimmy Stewart films.

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  52. brian stouder said on May 23, 2013 at 6:20 pm

    Years ago, I always liked that actor in the oldie-oldie movies, who always played the handsome ill-starred criminal….

    10 minutes on Uncle Google, and I found his name: John Garfield. This took 10 minutes because if you google gangster pictures, there is lots and lots of interesting stuff to read.

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  53. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 6:41 pm

    Brian: John Garfield was the star in a truly classic: The Postman Always Rings Twice. No offence to anybody, but all I can conjure about James Stewart is his Raygunism and that horrible Christmas movie I won’t name. Godawmighty I hate that movie. And Jimmie was the single worst overactor ever. I liked him when I was a child, but Holy Crap he got old fast. He was just a scene gobbler. Liberty Valance? decent.

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  54. Paul Harrington said on May 23, 2013 at 6:42 pm

    That pic doesn’t look like your surgery went very well, but as long as you are doing better that’s all that counts.

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  55. ROGirl said on May 23, 2013 at 6:43 pm

    This appears to be the source of the inspiration for the Jerry Ford sculpture.

    http://boomvisits.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Easter-Island-6.jpg

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  56. Prospero said on May 23, 2013 at 6:51 pm

    Ya know, it’s always struck me funny that rightwingers object to intelligent folks like Matt Damon expressing political opinions when they never had a problem with Jimmy Stewart and Glen Ford. Mosaic Law. Whose ox is gored.

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  57. Suzanne said on May 23, 2013 at 8:37 pm

    Jolene,
    I missed your news yesterday, too, so I will also “hold you in the light”. Good luck to you.

    I realize I did live in a food desert when young. I didn’t see a bagel and cream cheese until I went to college. A pizza place opened up near us when I was in middle school or so and we were all amazed. I now wonder what youth gatherings ate back in the day. I mean, there were church youth groups in Indiana pre-pizza days and surely the kids were fed!

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  58. Joe K said on May 23, 2013 at 9:07 pm

    Jimmy Stewart was also a hell of bomber pilot, flew all the tough missions in a b-24, had to beg the higher ups to get a combat assignment, after the war stayed in the air guard, and continued to fly, strategic air command is my favorite Jimmy Stewart movie
    Pilot Joe

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  59. basset said on May 23, 2013 at 9:19 pm

    We’ve lived in Nashville going on 28 years and I never once set foot in Mario’s… that whole block’s getting torn out and replaced with a hotel and retail. Been to the Stockyard but never ate there, went for some kind of event or announcement or something, don’t remember.

    Growing up in Martin County, southwest of Bloomington, I don’t recall seeing any good pizza till I got to IU and discovered Mother Bear’s, and Pagliai’s, and Cafe Pizzaria, and the original Noble Roman’s. I can still remember Mother Bear’s delivery number (812 332 4495)forty years later. The names of people I just met fall straight out of my head, on pizza I’m good though.

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  60. Dorothy said on May 23, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    Jimmy Stewart was the bee’s knees.

    Suzanne, I would wager hamburgers and hot dogs were the go-to meals for teenagers before pizza etc.

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  61. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 23, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    Mmmm, Noble Roman’s. Those globs of marinara were oddly enjoyable. Some of the best deep dish pizza I’ve had this side of the Chicago River . . . albeit on the Levee, in West Lafayette.

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  62. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 23, 2013 at 9:51 pm

    Oh, and we got this far along today in the BSA: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/us/boy-scouts-to-admit-openly-gay-youths-as-members.html

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  63. Julie Robinson said on May 23, 2013 at 10:03 pm

    Noble Roman’s was our Bloomington favorite too, and we even had them in the Fort for a while, but not for many years. They just opened a take-an-bake storefront, and we tried them last weekend. Meh. Short on toppings and cheese, and kinda pricey. I can do better than that myself, and most Friday nights, I do.

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  64. MaryRC said on May 23, 2013 at 10:30 pm

    Dorothy, a friend of mine encountered the same sort of situation at a store and in the parking lot. She and other people in the store spoke to the mother but the mother didn’t take it well. Afterwards she regretted not taking some kind of action, but a child services worker she spoke to told her that at least the mother had been served warning that people were looking at her and would be prepared to get involved if she behaved that way toward her child in public again. So speaking to the grandmother and child the way that you and your friend did was a positive thing.

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  65. Dexter said on May 23, 2013 at 11:39 pm

    Suzanne: I remember church outings and being fed when I was a kid. (Early to mid-1950s) It was always sloppy joes, potato chips, and carrot and celery sticks. Some Kool-Aid. A tiny Dixie ice cream cup served with a wooden flat “spoon”. If we went to a lake, perhaps, we would cut a green stick from a tree, impale a hot dog, and burn the skin black, slam it in a white bun and slather on the relish, mustard, and ketchup. We didn’t know what “catsup” was. 🙂
    At home, nobody we knew had grills. We had a fire circle lined with stones and we’d burn dry wood. Hamburgers were cooked in a frying pan inside.
    I had the preacher tell this story at Mom’s funeral nine years ago: We had poor neighbors, up from rural Tennessee, who lived a mile away in a dilapidated old farm house which they rented. The adults worked when they could get work, but a lot of the times the kids went hungry. Mom invited all the barefoot kids to our lawn for a hot dog party, we burned the hot dogs of course, and Mom served baked beans and chips and the Kool-Aid. No big deal, right? One of the kids told Mom, “I wisht you was MY mommy.” That touched my mom’s heart; she rarely told the story, but I remember it well.

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  66. Crazycatlady said on May 24, 2013 at 12:20 am

    That bowl looks so delicious. There are a thousand ways to do it. Can’t wait to try it!

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  67. basset said on May 24, 2013 at 7:21 am

    Living in Tennessee, the only Noble Roman’s I see is a carryout stand at a gas station along 65 in Kentucky, haven’t been that way in awhile and I’m not even sure it’s still there… do they even have sitdown restaurants any more?

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