Well, it was a pretty quiet birthday. Leaden skies, unreturned phone calls, email. At the end of it, I played the ultimate working-mother card: The rotisserie chicken. What on earth is happening with rotisserie chickens these days? They’re the size of pigeons. You’re lucky to feed three people with one of them, and the third person is a teenager who picks.
I tried to get a fryer at the market a few weeks ago. The poor things were so thin you could see the pinkish flesh through the skin.
“Find me one that didn’t die of starvation,” I asked. It’s my standard quip. It never works. They all died of starvation. And yet, the lure of “Amish chicken” is powerful in an urban environment. I once heard one young man tell another that the Amish just do chicken better. This while standing over the case featuring the scrawny ones.
“The Amish do chicken exactly the same as everybody else,” I told him. He wasn’t having it, but I know whereof I speak. Not organic, not hormone-free, not running around a barnyard snagging bugs and grubs before being humanely beheaded on a tree-stump chopping block. Just a smaller sort of poultry operation, but hey — it ain’t Tyson.
But the rotisserie chicken was tasty, if not large enough. Mashed potatoes plus oven-roasted carrots with black sesame seeds. Leftover birthday cake. Good enough for a Monday.
And now “Boardwalk Empire” and the realization, once again, that all the allegedly high-quality Sunday-night TV is getting on my nerves. “Homeland” is a joke. “Masters of Sex,” which started strong, has stagnated into the same half-dozen or so themes over and over — Sex is science, sex is emotion, sex follows a script, sex never follows a script, blah blah blah. Will Dr. Masters overcome his emotional repression? Will Virginia Johnson get the respect she craves? We interrupt this repetition to display Lizzy Caplan’s naked breasts again. We interrupt those breasts to show you the saucy blonde secretary’s breasts again. And so on.
Also, I’m tired of these allegedly period shows dumping 21st-century language and attitudes hither and yon when it suits the writers. The previews for next week show one character raging, “I’m just an organ donor to you people,” a neat trick for 1959 or thereabouts, when organ transplantation was in its very earliest days and the phrase “organ donor” was hardly in common usage.
So, some bloggage before we start the runup to the holiday? Sure:
The Hollywood Reporter blows the lid off “No animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture,” with mixed results. I don’t think anyone can help but feel for a tiger that nearly drowns making “Life of Pi,” but it’s hard not to chuckle over a paragraph like this:
… a chipmunk was fatally squashed in Paramount’s 2006 Matthew McConaughey-Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy Failure to Launch.
Not the chipmunk! Fatally squashed! The problem is, it brings out the way we really do put animals on a hierarchy. Mammals over fish, some mammals over other mammals.
Remember the Columbus Dispatch bike blogger hit by a car earlier this month? He’s awake and blogging again. But a long way from OK. Shudder.
So, happy Tuesday? Happy Tuesday.
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 26, 2013 at 6:46 am
Travel safely, all ye who wander for the holiday. Snowpocalypse is mostly south and east of us, so our hejira to Indianapolis by way of Bear’s Mill tomorrow is safe. See you all on the other side of giving thanks, and I’m thankful for you all, from birthday girl all the way down to the lurkers — be well!
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David C. said on November 26, 2013 at 7:05 am
I’ve heard that chickens and turkeys are smaller because corn is so expensive. They are now putting more soybeans in their feed mix, which has fewer calories for the volume fed. I’ve also heard the only difference between Amish chickens and run of the mill chickens is the kid mixing the growth promotants, etc. is wearing a straw hat instead of a baseball cap. If you’re looking for good, not scrawny birds, check these guys out. They come to the Royal Oak farmer’s market. http://ottoschicken.com/schedule3.html
We ate nothing but when we lived in Grand Rapids. Now when we visit we always to home with a cooler full and really miss them when they’re gone.
Reading a story of a cyclist who survives such an accident. Well, first hate that they are called accidents. When someone gets tanked and drives or texts while driving, it’s done with such purpose. Why let them off the hook by calling it an accident. But anyway, I wonder if I’m being selfish riding on the road and putting myself in such danger. My wife has medical problems that make it difficult for her to hold down a job, so I’m our only support. Even with plenty of life insurance, I just wonder. There is a rail-to-trail only about a mile from our house, but I like going fast on my road bike. I do my best to be seen, but have still had people pull out in front of me. Then there are the bike haters like the one who whacked one of the guys in my group ride with a 2×4 and broke his shoulder. I guess it’s best to not think of it and besides the closest I’ve ever come to being hit by a car was while walking – by someone with a big “Keep Christ in Christmas” sign on the back of the car. Keep Christ in Christmas, keep Dave in the morgue, I guess.
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beb said on November 26, 2013 at 8:08 am
With store bought chicken pegged at $5 I wonder if the size of the chicken has been declining as the price of chickens have been increasing. Either that or market research suggested that the average number of consumers of pre-cooked chicken is two and so are selected chickens that will produce the least amount of left-overs. Or…or…because Obama!
So the meaning of the phrase “no animals were hurt in the making of this movie” depends on the meaning of “is.” I guess Pres. Clinton was on to something there.
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Deborah said on November 26, 2013 at 8:14 am
We’re leaving for Santa Fe today, we fly out from Midway on Southwest. I checked in online yesterday at exactly 24 hours before flight time and I still got #B39. But my husband has the frequent traveler upgrade so he got #A16, he’ll save me a good seat. I’m not looking forward to the scene at the airport, but I guess it’s better than flying on Weds. Safe travels everyone.
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beb said on November 26, 2013 at 8:43 am
I was going to post this for the amusement of whichever Brian likes breasts but the story is actually kind of sad. While driving in New York a kid (everyone was over 19 but still young and foolish) decided to prank the driver by yanking on string tying on her bikini top. During her panic as she tried to cover herself the car hit a wall and flipped, killing the prankster and injuring another. The injured person sued for negligence but following the judge’s instruction on unexpected events the jury found the woman innocent of negligence. Which just goes to show that it’s all fun and games until someone gets killed. The headline is a classic example of click-bait. *sigh*
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ny-driver-untied-bikini-top-cleared-crash-21002264
Another example of click-bait is this headline:
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/11/25/bank-look-to-charge-customers-to-hold-their-money-if-fed-says-stop-being-lazy/
Aside from some dark mutterings about bank revenue loses there’s not a word on how banks would charge customers for holding their money. Although banks are already pretty good about finding ways to charge you for giving them your money.
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LAMary said on November 26, 2013 at 9:51 am
The scrawny chicken blight has not hit California. The rotisserie chickens at Costco are ample and the whole chickens sold there are voluptuous. We’ve been feasting on butterflied chicken twice a week because they’re such a good deal. Trader Joe’s whole chickens are plump as well. I’m butterflying my turkey this year. There’s good recipe on the Epicurious website for butterflied chicken with herbs and chardonnay gravy. I might also try a recipe I saw on Tasting Table website for maple buttermilk pie with sweet cornmeal crust.
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David C. said on November 26, 2013 at 10:18 am
Love butterflied chicken. We peel the skin down and put garlic, oregano, basil, rosemary, salt, and pepper under the skin and pull the skin back up. It’s amazing, and if you can wait a day to eat it cold, it’s even better.
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Heather said on November 26, 2013 at 10:33 am
David C., did you read this opinion piece about how drivers are rarely, if ever, prosecuted for cyclists’ deaths in accidents? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html
Maybe attitudes will slowly change. In the meantime, bike carefully, I guess.
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brian stouder said on November 26, 2013 at 10:40 am
Hard to go wrong with breasts, indeed.
Here’s an excerpt from CNN.com that irked me, a bit:
Courting the Affordable Care Act: The next stop for the troubled health care reform law could be the U.S. Supreme Court. At issue is a provision that requires employers of a certain size to offer insurance coverage for birth control and other reproductive health services. This is a constitutional issue for plaintiffs like craft store chain Hobby Lobby. Its owners say being forced to provide insurance coverage that includes “morning-after” pills goes against their Christian values, First Amendment rights and amounts to abortion. The justices could announce today whether they will take up the case – one that has already split appeals courts across the country.
Horse pucky! Aside from the gratuitous “troubled Affordable Health Care” reference, all these complaints about paying for something you don’t “believe in” is just ridiculous.
These holy and faithful people already pay for the single largest human organization on God’s blue Earth, devoted to killing as many other human beings as possible, in the shortest amount of time – and I don’t hear any complaints from them about that.
Aside from that – as the holiday weekend beckons, my one fervent hope – as our family heads over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house – is that my brothers-in-law don’t get the remote, and/or that there isn’t a “Duck Dynasty” (et al) holiday marathon going.
Sadly, I’m pretty sure I know how that will turn out…but on the other hand, even DD would be better than any political discourse
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coozledad said on November 26, 2013 at 10:41 am
To be fair, if they fed those Cornish rocks actual food, they’d balloon up and die before they could be shipped. They’re genetically selected to produce the maximum weight from a minimum of nutrients with a fast turnaround.
We were given a few when we first started raising chickens. A friend’s father had a Perdue chicken farm.
Since we fed them grain and let them out on the grass, they all bloated, lost mobility and died within a short period.
Cornish rocks have a calm, sweet disposition. Especially once they get wheezy from atherosclerosis. One of our first birds was my drinking chicken. On a cool afternoon after work, I’d grab my booze and go lie out in the yard to soak up some midsummer sun.
The chicken would sit down beside me and we’d enjoy the warmth together. I think there were a couple of times my wife found us down in front of the goat barn, one drunk, both asleep.
That chicken died sitting on my lap in a lawn chair. She’d gotten so heavy she couldn’t carry herself anymore. It was a little life, but no less sad to feel it go out of her.
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Charlotte said on November 26, 2013 at 11:02 am
The Cornish Rocks freak me out — every once in a while I think about raising a half dozen or so in the backyard, but I really hate killing chickens. One of my girls I auntie is doing the sustainable ag program at MSU, so she came over to help me kill the elderly layers I wasn’t willing to feed over the winter — “This is much harder than hunting” she said. “An elk or a deer, you shoot it from way over there, then you just open it up and tip everything out.” She was a champ, my Aly, did the hard part — I’ll start again in the spring. I miss those funny birds in the backyard.
Here, I buy chickens from the Hutterites. They’re huge — roaster size. I generally cut them into parts and freeze — as for turkey, I highly recommend the butterflied turkey. Always comes out delicious — and especially good if you cook it over the stuffing.
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mark said on November 26, 2013 at 11:07 am
“devoted to killing as many other human beings as possible, in the shortest amount of time”
Are you referring to the US military? If so, you might want to reconsider your comment. It is silly and offensive to the millions who do and have served in the military. It should be especially offensive to the thousands who are currently being called up to help their fellow citizens safely survive a major holiday storm.
“Sorry guys, we need you to take a break from killing as many of your fellow human beings as possible, in the shortest amount of time, to rescue stranded motorists. Be sure to get names and addresses though, and we will add those folks to the list when we resume mindless slaughter on Monday.”
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coozledad said on November 26, 2013 at 11:14 am
Oh God. Military religiosity. The hallmark of a motherfucker who’s never darkened the door of a recruiting office and would deny health benefits to the vets his party shoved into two intractable conflicts.
You go there, captain armchair!
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coozledad said on November 26, 2013 at 11:16 am
And don’t forget to lay some of that “Thank you for your service!” shit on a vet. Someday I hope they’ll decide the only appropriate response for that is a beatdown.
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mark said on November 26, 2013 at 11:32 am
I hope you get to spend lots of time with your family this Thanksgiving, Derrick. Best wishes to them all.
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coozledad said on November 26, 2013 at 11:39 am
I don’t hang with my family. Bunch of racist Republicans whose hillbilly heaven burnt down in 1865.
Hope you enjoy the new Thai government!
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LAMary said on November 26, 2013 at 11:58 am
When I butterfly chicken I put sage, black pepper, rosemary, thyme and lemon zest between the skin and the meat. The turkey is going to be similar. I’m probably doing cornbread bacon sage stuffing this year.
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brian stouder said on November 26, 2013 at 12:06 pm
So maybe mark/danny is really Antonin Scalia, since the United States Supreme Court has decided to take the ridiculous Hobby Lobby case.
Once they decided the ACA was Consitutional since it is a ‘tax’, if they invalidate it based on some people’s religious belief – then mark/Danny – why shouldn’t everyone who is a religious pacifist get to opt out of funding the military?
If this case prevails, what’s to stop “real” ‘muricans from opting out of paying for food for people who are out of work? Afterall, we don’t believe in something for nothing, and we have a work ethic, right?
Let them starve, and their babies, too.
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beb said on November 26, 2013 at 12:20 pm
Coolze @13 – now that was a STFU worth remembering.
And what Brian sdaid @ 18.
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MarkH said on November 26, 2013 at 1:16 pm
Brian, you really think mark and Danny are the same person? A la Dwight and his previous feeble attempts at multiple nn.c identities? I’ve followed this blog for nine years and I’m pretty sure over that time mark has revealed he lives in Indiana and Danny has been clear on his San Diego, California residency.
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alex said on November 26, 2013 at 1:34 pm
It’s Brandon and Danny who are one and the same. mark’s a libertarian crank from around these parts.
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coozledad said on November 26, 2013 at 1:38 pm
I might be mistaken, but I think what Brian is saying is they’re splinters off the dipshit Borg. You all start to sound the same after awhile, the irreducible calculus being “Waaaaah! Black man preznit.”
I can’t wrap my head around someone being a supporter of the Romney/ “Cocksucker from Planet Gym” ticket and subsequently venturing into a public forum to discuss concepts like compassion, or policy, or how to cross the street without adult supervision.
It just doesn’t figure.
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MarkH said on November 26, 2013 at 1:40 pm
Alex, you’re in danger of starting a conspiracy theory that some at nn.c have many identities there are really only five people who post here. 🙂
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Julie Robinson said on November 26, 2013 at 1:54 pm
(Ignoring the troll.)
I think the chickens are smaller so they can keep the price the same. It’s just another way to squeeze out more profits. I don’t buy them very often, so they seem like a real treat when I do. I’m not a big meat eater, so we usually squeeze three meals out of one if the last one is soup.
We have a 24 pound bird to cook for Thanksgiving, but we aren’t hosting so it feels like we’re getting off easy. We have been instructed to use Emeril’s turkey rub and were even provided with a bottle of the stuff. It looks to me to be a pretty ordinary ingredient list, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. As in, it’s not worth arguing about.
As I count my blessings this year, I’m thankful for new and better jobs for both my kids, who haven’t reached economic stability yet, but are much closer. (Here’s another way Costco is great, beyond wonderful chicken–they’re closed on Thanksgiving but still pay even their part-timers.) And of course, I also count our merry band here at nnc!
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Judybusy said on November 26, 2013 at 1:57 pm
For some reason, LAMary’s calm insertion of her chicken recipe just made me laugh. I will have to check out how to butterfly a chicken. I didn’t get organized this year, so don’t have any of my cousin’s chickens in my freezer. I *must* remember to order some next year. Up until he died about 9 years ago, my step-dad and mom raised about 100 chickens a year. Each of us kids got five a year, and they were such a treat. I can get free-range whole chickens at the food co-op (raised in my home town no less!) but I’ve never even checked the price. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are $20 a pop. When we want rotisserie chicken, we go to a mearby middle eastern gorcery store. You get a chicken, fries or humus, pita bread and a salad for 8.99. There are always leftovers, so we make something else from that; last week it was quesadillas. They have different seasoning, too: plain, garlic, lemon and spicy.
I think it’s absolutely shameful we are cutting food stamps. We live in this country where we say it’s OK that some of us go hungry? It has such terrible implications when children go hungry, too. We pay for that policy for decades.
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Prospero said on November 26, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Incredibly stupid shinola GOPers said about the Iran deal before they had a clue what it entailed. Because … Obama. And AIPAC lobbyists.
And MarkH, I decided you’re right. I love Iran so much, I’m considering moving there and marrying it. Same infantile taunts preceded Shock and Awe and the occupation and the rest of the war crimes in Iraq. GOPers trusted Iran back in those days enough to basically open Iraq up to co-option by the Shiite population and cede virtual control over Iraq to Moqtada alSadr and his Irani masters. Which country has a better reason to distrust the other? Iran or USA? When was the last time Iran overthrew the US government? GOP loved them some Ayatollahs during the 1980 election when Iran held onto the embassy hostages long enough to preclude an October surprise, in return for sweetheart arms deals with Iran that also funded death squads in Guatemala and El Salvador. This arms build-up in Iran also led directly to the Iran-Iraq war that killed literally millions, and in which Saddam’s army was also armed by the Raygunites.Of course, the GOP had its own Ayatollahs back then. Falwell, Oral Roberts, Garner Ted, Pat Robertson, now replaced with historical symmetry by the American Taliban Teabangers.
Some recent medical study says that Plan B emergency contraception (which prevents uterine implantation of a fertilized egg–clearly not abortion by any but a wild imaginative stretch), is ineffective in women 165 lbs., and more likely than not to fail in women 175 lbs. and more. The average weight of American women more than 20 yo is apparently 166, so this hoohah may be a non-issue:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/11/plan-b-morning-after-pill-weight-limit-pounds
Of course if you believe babies conceived in rapes and incest are “gifts from God”, this is all good, and couldn’t possibly lead to more abortions. I’d say this was intellectual dishonesty, if only there were a shred of intellect involved.
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Brandon said on November 26, 2013 at 3:04 pm
21.alex said on November 26, 2013 at 1:34 pm
It’s Brandon and Danny who are one and the same. mark’s a libertarian crank from around these parts.
Where’d that come from? I’m from Hilo, born and raised. I don’t know where Danny’s from.
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mark said on November 26, 2013 at 3:12 pm
“Let them starve, and their babies, too.”
Good argument.
You must not realize that in granting cert for the Hobby Lobby case, the Court did what the Obama Administration asked it to do. Hobby Lobby won the argument in the 10th Circuit, and not granting cert would make the lower ruling final.
The Hobby Lobby case won’t “invalidate” the ACA regardless of what the Supreme Court does. Where did you get that idea? When the Amish acquired a free exercise exemption to SSI, it didn’t make the program go away. At most, the Hobby lobby decision might exempt a narrow portion of the ACA from application to a small number of for-profit companies.
The Hobby Lobby case does represent the best opportunity to revisit and overrule Citizens United. The threshold question in Hobby Lobby, and in the companion case consolidated with it, is: Do for-profit corporations have religious/free exercise rights under the Constitution? The Hobby Lobby decision says they have never previously enjoyed such rights, but predicted they would based upon Citizens United. If corporations have free speech rights, why wouldn’t they have the equally fundamental religious rights? That superficially compelling argument, however, does more to expose the flaws in Citizens United than to demonstrate any wisdom in Hobby Lobby. The grant of cert has put Citizens United directly back into the legal fray, a result you should applaud rather than label ridiculous.
“…why shouldn’t everyone who is a religious pacifist get to opt out of funding the military?”
Because without exception challenges to Congressional action based upon free exercise grounds have required direct rather than indirect burdens. This is why CO status can excuse military service but does not allow you to pick and choose what the government funds. The government can’t force you to celebrate Ramadan, but it can use your tax dollars to fund celebrations at embassies across the world and at the White House.
“…what’s to stop “real” ‘muricans from opting out of paying for food for people who are out of work?”
In addition to the direct rather than indirect injury requirement, the religious principle must be significant, earnestly held and long-practiced. For an example of these requirements read the very recent ACA/contraception decision out of Pennsylvania involving the Catholic diocese. (Which is and will be distinguishable from Hobby Lobby because Hobby Lobby involves a first ever recognition of free exercise rights in for-profit corporations while religions and religious orders have routinely been recognized as eligible for constitutional protection on that basis). Attempts to toy with the issue as you have (My God don’t wunt tuh feed no people) are not successful.
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Brandon said on November 26, 2013 at 3:15 pm
Regular readers will know me as one of the few Madonna fans here.
==
…[A]ll the allegedly high-quality Sunday-night TV is getting on my nerves.
Exactly. Sunday I watched the American Music Awards, but usually watch “Animation Domination” on Fox (The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, and American Dad!) Last night I learned they killed off Brian the talking dog on Family Guy.
The last show that lived up to the hype was The Sopranos. Oz, which premiered in 1997, was underrated, but it paved the way for all these shows.
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LAMary said on November 26, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Judybusy, sometimes calmly discussing recipes is the best thing to do.
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Julie Robinson said on November 26, 2013 at 3:36 pm
Word.
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Prospero said on November 26, 2013 at 3:39 pm
John Bolton could really benefit from Obamacare. He could get treatment for his narcisistic personality disorder.
Brandon is correct. Still being a fan of Madonna is a model of sanity in the face of granny-starving GOPers trying to restart the PNAC psychosis over Iran. These whackos are actually claiming Iran can’t be trusted because it has taken over virtual control of Iraq. And who exactly is responsible for that happening? John Bolton and the rest of the PNAC neocon nutjobs intent on scotching any sort of peaceful rapprochement with Iran, a nation of nearly 100million people.
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Brandon said on November 26, 2013 at 3:47 pm
Thank you, Prospero. What else can I say? Not only am I not from Indiana or San Diego, I’ve never even been to those places.
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Charlotte said on November 26, 2013 at 3:51 pm
The new pope is once again showing great promise. Starting to look like the post-Vatican II One True I grew up in: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/26/pope-francis-capitalism-tyranny
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brian stouder said on November 26, 2013 at 4:01 pm
mark – well said, and I apologize for being irritable with your “silly and offensive” response, when I commented on the all-too-precious Hobby Lobby suit.
Anyway, your response was interesting and enlightening
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David C. said on November 26, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Heather@8. There is a proposal to toughen the laws for cars hitting bikes or pedestrians here in Wisconsin. But it’s being opposed by ABATE the no helmet law nuts because FREEDOM!(tm), so it’s going nowhere. I guess it doesn’t pay to think about it too much. Just stay visible and hope for the best.
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Prospero said on November 26, 2013 at 4:20 pm
De nada Brandon. I’ve been to both and also to the Big Island and Oahu. San Diego is nice, except for the profusion of John Birch types. Indiana? What David Byrne said about Flyover: “I wouldn’t live there if you paid me.” My dad once had a job offer in Hawai’i when I was a kid. I don’t know why my mom and dad decided against it. What’s your take on Haim. I like ’em. Good songwriting , excellent lead guitar, bass and harmonies. Best band I’ve seen on SNL in a long time. They remind me of Hanson. The Wire is a lot like Mmm-Bop which I think is a great song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TffpkE2GU4
Charlotte@34: I think Pope Frankie is a liberation theologist coming out of the closet.
This insane weirdo claims the Constitution gives him the authority to kill the President. Given the clarity of the threat agains another person’s life, I’d say more than 600 years of English Common Law upon which our legal system (except for Lousyana’s) is based gives me the authority to protect the President’s life by killing Militiaboy. Hope the asshat enjoys TGiving with the Secret Service. Personally, I’d send him to the Azerbaijanis for marinating. And let’s here it from the both sides do it false equivalency crowd. Anybody ever threaten Shrub’s life on Facebook? And what’s with Facebook letting this dick get away with this, when they won’t abide photos of nursing mothers?
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MichaelG said on November 26, 2013 at 4:20 pm
If butterfly is the same as spatchcock, it’s a great way to grill a chicken on your barbecue.
One year when I was still in Auburn my wife got a wild hair and bought a food turkey chick at the feed store. The poor thing grew and grew and grew blowing up like a balloon. Finally it could barely breathe and couldn’t walk anymore. It was huge. It just lay there wheezing and died – exactly as Cooz describes with his chickens.
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MichaelG said on November 26, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Right, Deborah. The Southwest Airlines A-List is a great deal. It’s saved me untold hours of waiting in line and sitting in middle seats. I’ve got lots of free flights stacked up and plan to start using them soon. People put them down all the time, calling them “Southworst” and all but I like the airline. They deliver exactly what they promise which is reliable on time flights for a reasonable price. It may be because most of my flying these days is within the State of California but their on time performance in my experience has been stellar. Boarding early I can always get the seat I want and rarely have someone in the middle seat next to me. The only thing I don’t like is that they constantly fiddle with their schedules in an effort to keep their load factor up but I can’t really fault with them for that. It’s just a pain sometimes that the flight I take one week is scheduled an hour later the next week. Or an hour earlier.
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Danny said on November 26, 2013 at 5:18 pm
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Not to further confuse the issue, but some may suspect a Danny/Superman connection having never seen both of us in the same place contemporaneously.
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Peter said on November 26, 2013 at 5:21 pm
I do wish a very happy and enjoyable Thanksgiving to you all.
Here’s hoping the Lions finally break their nine game Thanksgiving losing streak and beat the Packers.
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Prospero said on November 26, 2013 at 5:21 pm
The atrocity of Black Friday is depressing. “Pretend doorbuster is a real word day”. I cannot stand this shit, nor comprehend participating in it.
War on Thanksgiving.
I know a lot of people think The Sandlot is some great kid nostalgia sports movie, but when the kids in 1962 give each other high fives, I want to break something. In ’62? NFW.
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coozledad said on November 26, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Badly made people. Unrepentant, irrecoverable:
http://wonkette.com/535255/for-this-beautiful-holiday-dinesh-dsouza-makes-us-thankful-we-are-not-dinesh-dsouza#more-535255
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Prospero said on November 26, 2013 at 5:54 pm
Is Hobby Lobby privately held? If not it should never have been found to have standing in the case in the first place. If it is, it will probably win at the SC. The 10th Circuit is conservative, so the Hobby Lobby win there is not surprising. Of course, there are also two vacancies that President Obama has nominated two candidates for, that some ahole GOPer Senator, undoubtedly from Texas (C’mon Goodhair, rid us of this turbulent state) has holds on. Contraception as health and medical care to which Americans have rights is settled law, without a doubt. Rightwing pipe dreams about a return to preggers and barefoot are forlorn.
The Hobby Lobby case begs a question. How do you prove Faith? How do you prove religious sincerity? Why should a single dime of my money have supported the Shrubco Iraq adventure that sure as hell didn’t pay for itself, even if the neocons put it on the platinum card. The leader of the Church I attend and donate money to on Sunday’s was quite clear at the time that the invasion was a moral outrage. That was J2P2, who for all his failings got that one right on the nose. He wanted to go to Bagdhad ahead of Shock and Awe. W and Dickless would have blown him up. If the Court finds for Hobby Lobby, I want my money back.
On Dinesh Souza: Since when is “anti-colonial” a damning imprecation to Americans? Especially to Americans born in Mumbai. Does Souza apologize for Ghandi’s actions against the late Raj? Does he disavow the patriotism of G. Washington and T. Jefferson? What the hell is he talking about? Does he know himself? What a jerk. If I lost my mind and decided I believed 100% of what passes for conservative political thinking in the USA at present, I’d keep it to myself rather than admit it because Alan West, Dinesh Souza and internet-toughboy Everest Wilhelmsen. Gutdom, what a freakshow.
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LAMary said on November 26, 2013 at 6:12 pm
Butterfly is the same as spatchcock but not as cool a word.
Then there’s chicken under a brick, which is butterflied and squashed under a brick or a cast iron frying pan or a terra cotta tile wrapped in foil. You start the butterflied chicken skin side down in an oven proof skillet with a weight on top to keep it flat.You get it browned on one side on the stove, then you finish cooking it in the oven at high temperature. You get the skin nice and crispy this way.
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David C. said on November 26, 2013 at 6:23 pm
10 Tips For a Libertarian Thanksgiving:
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/11/a-10-step-guide-to-a-libertarian-thanks-giving/
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Sherri said on November 26, 2013 at 6:53 pm
The administration begins the fight to curtail 501(c)4’s: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/27/us/politics/new-campaign-rules-proposed-for-tax-exempt-nonprofits.html?hp&_r=0
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Deborah said on November 26, 2013 at 8:30 pm
I’m back in Santa Fe trying to relax with a pungent fire going. After a long day of travel, cab to Midway, flight to Albuquerque, shuttle bus to Santa Fe, cab to our place. My cat hardly seems to know me which is sad. Tomorrow will be a better day, except that we have to do our grocery shopping for Thanksgiving on the worst grocery shopping day of the year. I need to get in a better frame of mind soon.
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Prospero said on November 26, 2013 at 8:48 pm
Not to be picky, but the point is not to curtail 501(c)4s, it’s to prevent purely political, astroturfed organizations from getting the designation to hide the sources of the money. Nobody really cares about the tax-exemption, they want to hide Mortimer and Randolph Koch’s and Karl Rove’s fingerprints to maintain the Potemkind grass roots facade.
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Prospero said on November 26, 2013 at 8:55 pm
Spatchcock etymology.
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MichaelG said on November 27, 2013 at 2:01 am
That’s the way I do it, Mary. I wrap a brick in tinfoil and use it to mash the chicken on my Weber. It yields a truly delish dinner. Also I have to confess that I peeped at Google to see what butterflied chicken looked like.
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Brandon said on November 27, 2013 at 3:14 am
Prospero, I missed SNL but I’ll check Haim out on YouTube.
If you get a chance to visit the Big Island again, I think you’ll like it. I’ve heard Honolulu has really grown in the last twenty years.
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Hattie said on November 28, 2013 at 3:59 pm
I share your gripes.
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