That’s *my* pie.

I’m reviving the long-dormant NN.c tradition of the Pie of the Month, now that I have an office and co-workers again. Today, I made Betty Rosbottom’s raspberry mousse pie in a chocolate brownie crust. The cookbook it came from is 30 years old, and whaddaya know? Here it is, sans copyright but pretty much word for word the way it appears in Rosbottom’s book.

Can you copyright a recipe? That’s an interesting question. I wonder if I care enough to look up the answer. Probably not.

But the pie was very good, although not very good for an office offering. Soon, fruit of all sorts will be back in season, and the PotM will be something that draws the FBI agents from their several individual offices in our Detroit building. I don’t know what they’re up to, only that every so often when I go to the vending machines on the tenth floor for a soda, I run into some guy with a gun and a badge on his belt. Today we ate lunch at a restaurant around the corner, and sat next to a table of uniformed and plainclothes state police. It’s the safest corner in the city.

The state boys — I prefer the U.P. usage — had one of their cruisers parked outside the restaurant. I was unaware we are the last state police department to still use the gum ball roof light design, even though they’re now equipped with LEDs. I just like the cars, as long as they’re not pulling me over.

So, a lovely day today. I took the first early-morning bike ride of the season. It was chilly and the sun was blazing over the water. I tried not to look directly at its dazzle, but at one point I glanced over and thought, huh. Sharks. Don’t see that very often in fresh water. It was two swans turned ass-up to root for whatever they eat off the bottom, but for the life of me, it looked like a couple of dorsal fins.

I’m making no sense, right? Skip to the bloggage, then.

I found this excoriation of Franklin Graham via Neil Steinberg, who noted that Franklin’s father skipped every chance to take a strong moral stand on the issues of his day, preferring to suck up to presidents. I’m not well-versed enough on my Billy Graham Crusades history to know whether that’s true, but his son is certainly a shit.

If a motor vehicle has to crash into my house, please, let it be the Wienermobile.

And so the week is underway. Forward!

Posted at 12:30 am in Uncategorized |
 

31 responses to “That’s *my* pie.”

  1. David C. said on April 22, 2014 at 7:01 am

    Funny, the copyrighting of a recipe came up recently on some blog I was reading. It was in relation to this culinary train wreck.

    http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes/30458/duggar_s_tater_tot_casserole

    I guess I can console myself knowing that they had to fork over $35 to the evil Federal gubmint to get a copyright on a recipe that’s been blighting potlucks since at least the 60s.

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  2. Kristen said on April 22, 2014 at 7:03 am

    I see the NYT picked up the Detroit driver story today.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/us/a-drivers-bloody-run-in-with-an-angry-detroit.html?hp

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  3. coozledad said on April 22, 2014 at 7:58 am

    Franklin Graham, like other former cocaine abusers Chevy Chase and George Bush, is living with a fundamentally altered brain structure, optimized for seeking cocaine rich environments. To ordinary people, who can not afford to use an ice cream cone as a coke spoon, they might seem on first meeting to be assholes.

    And on any subsequent meetings.
    http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265232.php

    American gurus like the Graham family and coke are a perfect fit. The whole thrill of the grift is probably similar. The accelerated heart rate, the strange feeling of confidence, delusional intimations of higher intellectual function, and power over a bunch of hopeless shitsacks might provide a substitute for a clinical framework where an aging entitled party-boy asswipe can wean himself off the drug enough to keep from seizing his heart up.

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  4. coozledad said on April 22, 2014 at 8:13 am

    The headmaster of Haverford, John Nagl, remarked, “We focus on developing boys with good character, despite our best efforts, sometimes boys make bad choices. This was destructive and horrible. And we are deeply saddened.”

    Confiscated from Scott’s home in February were “8 lbs. of marijuana, 3 grams of hash oil, 23 grams of cocaine, 11 grams of Ecstasy, $11,000 in cash, a loaded handgun, an AR-15 assault rifle and AR-15 style rifle.”

    Don’t sell yourself short, Mr. Nagl. These boys have virtually everything it takes to be a failed Republican nominee for president. It’s what political analysts call “the Mittens look”.

    http://gawker.com/philly-lax-bros-were-masterminds-of-complex-prep-school-1565801641

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  5. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 22, 2014 at 9:03 am

    I find Franklin distasteful (that’s how I spell shit, anyhow), but as for his dad:

    http://www.ctlibrary.com/7879

    Billy took major distaste from the Southern Baptists for his insistence on unsegregated seating at his crusades, and the SBC either was outright opposed to or simply would not promote his events until relatively late in Graham’s career. He’s only become a person they claim as their own in the last twenty years or so. Before then, they’d sniff and say “He’s really a Presbyterian at heart.” Southern Baptists know no worse insult, distastefully put or not.

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  6. Dorothy said on April 22, 2014 at 9:14 am

    Assuming they don’t have more than one of those Wienermobiles, I’m guessing I got this picture of it last November when we were house hunting in Dayton: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151620000902721&set=a.10151431664382721.1073741836.696722720&type=3&theater

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  7. LAMary said on April 22, 2014 at 9:44 am

    I think there are multiple Wienermobiles. Just like there are multiple Clydesdale teams.
    I watch the local news here in LA every morning and every morning some vehicle has driven into a house or a business. SUVs and BMWs operated by youngish drivers at high speed are frequently involved.

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  8. Deborah said on April 22, 2014 at 9:59 am

    Cute earth day google doodle http://searchengineland.com/rufous-hummingbird-celebrated-todays-google-earth-day-logo-along-5-unique-animals-189616

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  9. MarkH said on April 22, 2014 at 10:24 am

    LAMary, there have indeed always been a fleet of the Weinermobiles ready for promotions in any region of the US. But, how many other ‘brandmobiles’ were you all aware of. Here’s a website of the company that designs and produces these rigs, such as the Nutmobile, Tonymobile and Kissmobile (no, Gene Simmons has nothing to do with that one). Scroll through all the tabs for a look.

    http://www.prototypesource.com/index.htm

    Personally, I’d like the new Mini-Cooper-based mini Weinermobile.

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  10. Connie said on April 22, 2014 at 10:27 am

    I believe there are six Weinermobiles on the road. I once ran into one in my library parking lot back in Seymour Indiana. What a surprise.

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  11. Deborah said on April 22, 2014 at 10:44 am

    I want to get my picture taken in a Weinermobile. First the DeLorean, next a Weinermobile. There have been a number of accidents by the way http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wienermobile

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  12. Charlotte said on April 22, 2014 at 11:00 am

    My first editorial job out of college was in cookbooks — we repackaged all the Gourmet books (Best of …, Gourmet’s Best Desserts, and the one I still use, The Glamour Food Book). Anyhow, the deal with recipes is that copyright is slippery — if you want to use a recipe without paying for it (something my notoriously cheap boss built a business on) then all you have to do is change one ingredient slightly, or rewrite the instructional text. The etiquette was that you didn’t steal from the big writers — Martha Stewart did early in her career, and it’s one reason she was universally loathed in the business in the 1980s.

    Ah. Fond memories of wee 20 year old me, riding the bus up and down Lexington Avenue, with a portfolio as big as I was filled with mechanical boards. Text we waxed onto boards, and hand-set the illos. A lost world now.

    Also, wee little me in my khaki pants in the Elevator of Fashion Death going up to the corporate offices at Conde Nast. I’d occasionally wind up in the elevator with Andre Talley, who is 14 feet tall, and in those days wore beautiful bespoke suits from London. It was hard not to stare at his magnificence — I came up to his elbow.

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  13. Sherri said on April 22, 2014 at 11:42 am

    Jeff(tmmo), I can’t speak to the SBC’s opinion of Billy Graham, but he was certainly revered in Southern Baptist world I knew growing up. He was ordained as a Southern Baptist, and was a member of a Southern Baptist church throughout his career.

    I do think Graham liked being a spiritual counselor to Presidents too much to ever speak truth to power. Franklin is more in the Jerry Falwell mode than in is father’s mold, though.

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  14. coozledad said on April 22, 2014 at 11:54 am

    All of these people are frauds. They just can’t help their white trash selves:
    http://wonkette.com/547284/tim-tebow-will-help-you-be-the-manliest-jesus-lover-ever-just-like-tim-tebow#idc-container

    As one of the commenters points out, Tebow is wielding a splitting maul against the horizontal axis of a fallen tree, as if to cut it into sections. Unpossible.

    If you are doing this for exercise, you’d be using a two-man bucking saw (misery whip). It would kill both of these bloated fakes within ten minutes.

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  15. Bob (not Greene) said on April 22, 2014 at 12:19 pm

    Neil Steinberg’s blog post today is about ol’ Franklin Graham and his pappy: http://www.everygoddamnday.com/

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  16. coozledad said on April 22, 2014 at 12:51 pm

    Steinberg’s right. It’s impossible to think about Billy Graham without remembering him going on his knees with Bob Haldemann, John Erlichmann and Nixon, trying to pray away the Jew press.
    http://www.rense.com/general20/billy.htm

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  17. Deborah said on April 22, 2014 at 3:03 pm

    When I was a kid my family went to one of those Billy Graham services (revival?) where he preached. My Missouri Synod Lutheran mother was afraid someone from our church might find out, so my sister and I were sworn to secrecy. I was pretty young, maybe 7 or 8, I don’t remember much except that it was quite emotional. There was a call for people to come forward and receive a blessing or something. We stayed in our seats but everyone else seemed to go up there, I guess my mother thought that would be going to far for us to participate. It was held in a huge auditorium and the place was packed.

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  18. Dexter said on April 22, 2014 at 3:24 pm

    I live a mundane life. The only car to crash into a house on my street was a Buick Century (world’s most boring car) back about 2006. A very old woman had passed out, clobbered my car which I had just gotten out of the shop after $850 worth of repairs, totalling it, and then proceeded to jump the curb at full throttle and ram right into my neighbor’s house. She barely missed a woman walking with a baby stroller and two toddlers, and the owner/neighbor who was smoothing stones in his driveway. Nobody was hurt, even the old woman. While her insurance did reimburse me for the full tank of gas I had just pumped, they did not feel obligated to compensate me a penny for the repair job, and gave me a pittance to replace my car. That company was Progressive Insurance. I hate them.

    For Earth Day I picked up some beer and soda cans and some fast food wrappers and other crap on the field where I walk my dogs.
    My grand-dog Hans, a noble Weimaraner, has lost his long battle with cancer. He is to be put to sleep in about ten minutes in Toledo, as soon as my wife get there to comfort my daughter, Hans’ owner. They spent many thousands of dollars the past couple years with vet bills and several courses of chemotherapy. My son-in-law is away working so my wife felt she had to be there. I stayed here only because it would be too much to take our dogs there at this sad time. Most of us have lost pets to accidents or old age or to this horrible disease. We all know how awful a day like this is. When a pet dies we may say how special the animal was, but Hans was a loving, special, loyal dog to the end, ever day. Ah, shit.

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  19. Scout said on April 22, 2014 at 3:53 pm

    Peace to Hans and to the humans who love him, Dexter.

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  20. Deborah said on April 22, 2014 at 4:20 pm

    Dexter, your wife is a saint. You’ve mentioned many times how helpful she is. I don’t know how far Toledo is from you, but God bless her, and you too.

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  21. Kirk said on April 22, 2014 at 5:09 pm

    Billy Graham’s gestures and movements when preaching always reminded me of Benito Mussolini.

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  22. Dexter said on April 22, 2014 at 6:00 pm

    I realized I had to get here and clarify a situation right away, regarding my comments at the end of post #18.
    I just called my wife to see how our daughter was handling the dog situation and to my confused amazement was told as they entered the room where Hans was to say goodbye, he saw my wife and began wagging his tail. He got up licking his jowls and they quickly got him a pan of water, which he began drinking. He then walked to my wife and licked her face, tail wagging all the time. The vet just watched astounded, my daughter began crying joyously, the vet unhooked the IV tubes, and Hans was loaded up into the SUV and is home, and he ate some food and lay on his mat resting comfortably. I know this sounds like I am playin’ y’all with some weird Easter scenario, but I assure you this did indeed just occur minutes ago. Now ain’t THAT the shits! Yes, Hans still has cancer, but he is still with us. Thanks, Scout and Deborah for your caring.

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  23. Dexter said on April 22, 2014 at 6:14 pm

    Dave…the idea of that TLC TV show was to show how people cover up horrid tattoos, not celebrate them. Here’s the video of last night’s show featuring artist Tim covering up my little buddy Davey Mac’s Sopranos tattoo.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN1ySMTbYD4

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  24. Deborah said on April 22, 2014 at 7:35 pm

    We just got back from watching the movie “Under the Skin”. It was a very strange science fiction flick, I don’t usually go for those types of movies but this one is quite good, very well made. And Brian, Scarlet Johansson is naked in quite a bit of it. She has a nice body, it looks very natural, not overly hardened and muscular like so many starlets these days. She’s definitely not scary thin either. Here’s an article about the young actor in the movie who has NF http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/13/scarlett-johansson-screen-stigma-disfigurement I recommend the movie.

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  25. Dave said on April 22, 2014 at 7:42 pm

    When I was about four years old, we lived on Barnett Road, which was then the very east edge of Columbus. One day, when Dad was out in the yard, a wheel came off a passing vehicle, clipped our 1953 Dodge, and rolled over and hit the lady next door, an elderly lady who lived with her son’s family, knocking her down and breaking her leg.

    I’ve no idea how the settlements might have gone, being four years old, and there’s no one to ask now.

    I had a car hit while parked on the street in Norwalk, OH, but the person who did it paid for the repair, no argument, he was straightforward and honest, and it was much appreciated.

    I saw Billy Graham at long ago Jet Stadium in Columbus, this must have been about 1963 or thereabout. All I remember is sitting in the outfield somewhere. Just this week, I thought of that when I saw that they’re tearing down what has since become Cooper Stadium, which has sat empty and unused since 2008, according to this story: http://tinyurl.com/n3gpfuz

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  26. Dave said on April 22, 2014 at 7:45 pm

    Where, if I had an edit, I’d go back and say, Dexter, that’s quite a story about the dog. Very good.

    Oh, and it seems like cars are always running into houses in Tampa Bay. Just this past Sunday, a lady was killed while sleeping in her own bed by a car running into her bedroom.

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  27. basset said on April 22, 2014 at 9:45 pm

    1931 Indianapolis 500… the leader breaks an axle and crashes, a tire comes off his car and bounces out of the track, hits a 12-year-old boy playing in the yard of a nearby home and kills him.

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  28. brian stouder said on April 22, 2014 at 10:19 pm

    And Brian, Scarlet Johansson is naked in quite a bit of it.

    Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to hunt that one up.

    Dexter – here’s wishing you and yours all the best

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  29. Dexter said on April 22, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    This song keeps running through my head. That does not happen much anymore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM

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  30. Sue said on April 22, 2014 at 10:50 pm

    Hey Jerry, are you checking in tonight? Question for you – I just finished watching an episode of Inspector Gently and was wondering about the setting for this series. It’s supposed to be in the 60’s in northern England. Where do they find their locations to shoot this series? The locations don’t look ‘built’ and I seem to spend a lot of time when I watch this show noticing the backgrounds everywhere, inside and out, and just being kind of overwhelmed by how bleak and depressing everything is. I’ve read about ‘post-war England’ but this series presents it in a way no book ever has. So how are they re-creating it?
    Your thoughts?

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  31. MarkH said on April 22, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    Dave – Sorry to keep the Clare Rail Yard thing going here, but I haven’t seen your email address yet.

    Virginia Tech houses the Norfolk & Western Rail Museum. Here’s a link to a whole bunch of photos and such, mostly from the ’30s and ’40s of the Clare facilities and yard layout.

    http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/selectdocs.php?index=c&id=26

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