Guess how much?

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I am growing weary of the experts who do not buy their own groceries making predictions about this and that. So I decided to do my own calculations.

I have weekly grocery receipts from early March through late June of this year. I have last week’s receipt. Of the 38 items we bought last week, I found previous prices for 20 of them.

Earlier this year those 20 items cost $67.59. Last week they cost $81.23. That’s a 20% increase.

I’ll be honest. The list included a London broil. As Mr. Big Food has a slot limit on the size of the cuts he buys, I’m sure the two were approximately the same. On June 18th he bought one for $9.89. Last week, $18.46. We actually had a discussion about this in front of the meat case. The words, “It ain’t going to get any better any time soon,” were spoken and in the cart it went.

But if you want to do the math without the London Broil, prices have increased 9%.

Interestingly, brown eggs have gone from $3.05 to $1.59 per dozen. Celery, Jell-O, and avocados have stayed the same, as have plain Lays potato chips. We don’t buy much soda or pre-processed food (though I do love some original Kraft mac & cheese) so I cannot speak to whether or not “junk” food is going up in price. But that would be an interesting question to ask. Are grocery prices for those who do their own home cooking going up at a faster rate than for those who buy prepared (frozen, boxed) meals?

I have a chicken cooling in the pot and chicken and biscuits to get ready for supper tonight.

A Country Mouse Trip to Town

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Once a month I pay two bills in town on the same day: the electric bill, and the insurance bill.

The electric bill is now two bills: the electric bill, and the fiberoptic internet bill.

A couple of years ago the legislature of Mississippi gave the electric co-ops the go-ahead to string fiber-optic cable and deliver high speed internet to us ya-hoo country mice.

We had our doubts. I mean, if the electric company can’t reliably keep the electricity on, what are the odds that they can keep the internet on? And sure enough, in the first week that we’d switch from AT&T fixed wireless internet to Co-op Internet (which is way faster), the internet went down three times.

The Guy at the Electric Co-op was seriously apologetic. He explained that they had a redundancy problem. They didn’t have a backup.

Anyhow, the Guy knows that we reinstated AT&T. For $60 extra each month, so we’d have a backup.

So I’m paying the electric & internet bills through the drive through, and I see the Guy. He comes outside and waves.

“Miss Bickle,” he says which is funny b/c there is no legal doc that identifies me as Bickle.

And he lets me know that they are now redundant. They have a back up plan.

We laugh. If a tree falls on your fiberoptic lines… .

Then I went to pay the insurance bill and learned about my neighbor’s health. He’s not doing well.

On the way back home, we saw a car down in the ditch. If you’re in the South, you know what I mean. There are areas that flood, and so the roads are like 5-6′ above ground level. We passed the car which at glance had a woman in a car in a ditch. We turned around. “Are you okay”

“Just taking pictures of the girls in the cotton field.”

God Bless America.

Recipe: Egg and Vegetable Salad and Variations

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I understand that aspic/jello dinner salads have fallen out of favor. That’s too bad because this one was exceptional. Give it a try. We used lemon Jell-o in the not variation recipe.

EGG AND VEGETABLE SALAD AND VARIATIONS

For 6

1 package aspic gelatin
1 C boiling water
1 C cold water
3 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
1 C celery, diced
1 C cooked string beans, shredded (can use canned)
½ C cooked carrots, diced
Lettuce or watercress (for serving)
Mayonnaise (for garnish, and preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water, add cold water, pour a thin layer of gelatin in bottom of mold, and chill until firm. Arrange sliced eggs on firm gelatin and cover with another layer of gelatin. Chill until firm. Arrange alternate layers of celery, string beans, carrots, and gelatin, and chill until firm. Unmold, serve on lettuce or watercress, and garnish with mayonnaise.

VARIATIONS

Use lemon jell-o instead of aspic gelatin. Use ¾ C chopped cooked beets instead of string beans and carrots; use cabbage instead of celery. Arrange in layers as above or mix all ingredients together.

Recipe: Baked Chops with Herb Gravy

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This is delicious. Easy, too. Serve with rice or noodles.

BAKED CHOPS WITH HERB GRAVY

Serves 6

6 center cut pork chops, trimmed
1 large onion, chopped
1 Tbsp butter, melted
3 Tbsp flour
2 C milk
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp oregano
¼ tsp marjoram
¼ tsp thyme
1/3 C parsley

Preheat oven to 300*. Brown chops quickly in a hot skillet and place in a lightly greased 2 quart casserole. In the same skillet, sauté onion in butter until brown, stir in flour, then milk, and cook, and when smooth, add salt, oregano, marjoram, thyme, and parsley. Pour sauce over chops, cover, and bake 2 hours until very tender, stirring gravy twice during cooking time.

Recipe: Curried Turkey (or Chicken) Soup

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“Wonderful recipe for leftover turkey or for ready-made roasted chicken. From the Washington Post Food Section, Thanksgiving issue, from AT LEAST 20 years ago.”—Posted by: Cricket, The Deplorable Gourmet by The Horde (2017)

“This recipe is very flexible in terms of how thick or thin you want the soup to be. Add more stock to thin it or add more chicken to thicken it, but do yourself a favor and at least double the recipe because it’s even tastier the second day.”

CURRIED TURKEY (OR CHICKEN) SOUP

Yield: 4 servings, “I always double or triple it”
Prep time: 20 minutes or so

2 Tbsp water or stock (the latter preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)
1 Tbsp butter
¼ C chopped onion
1 Tbsp curry powder, or to taste
1 Tbsp flour
1 C coconut milk
1 tsp salt (optional)
¼ tsp white pepper
1 C diced cooked turkey or chicken meat
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 C turkey or chicken stock (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)
Optional, “not optional at all if you ask me!,” garnishes: crumbled crisp bacon, chopped scallions, shredded coconut, crushed roasted peanuts, mango chutney, chopped candied ginger
Basmati rice (optional)

In a large saucepan or stockpot over medium flame, heat water or stock and butter until butter melts, add onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, until transparent but not brown. Reduce flame to low, sprinkle curry powder and flour over onions, and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Slowly add coconut milk, stirring constantly, and cook until smooth, about 3 minutes. Still stirring, slowly add 1 C of the stock, plus salt, white pepper, and turkey or chicken meat, increase flame to medium, and cook until meat is warmed through, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Stir in lime juice. Serve immediately with garnishes on the side (if using). “Many times I serve this with a spoon of basmati rice in the bowl.”

Presentism | For the History Nerds

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Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought, David Hackett Fischer (1970)

Nunc pro tunc translates to “now for then,” and is apparently also a legal term. There is as well the concept of presentism in Philosophy. It’s unrelated to the concept as it’s used in literary and historical analysis. Surprisingly, that infallible source has a nice summery:

In literary and historical analysis, presentism is the anachronistic introduction of present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Some modern historians seek to avoid presentism in their work because they consider it a form of cultural bias, and believe it creates a distorted understanding of their subject matter.[1] The practice of presentism is regarded by some as a common fallacy when writing about the past.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first citation for presentism in its historiographic sense from 1916, and the word may have been used in this meaning as early as the 1870s. The historian David Hackett Fischer identifies presentism as a fallacy also known as the “fallacy of nunc pro tunc“. He has written that the “classic example” of presentism was the so-called “Whig history“, in which certain 18th- and 19th-century British historians wrote history in a way that used the past to validate their own political beliefs. This interpretation was presentist because it did not depict the past in objective historical context but instead viewed history only through the lens of contemporary Whig beliefs. In this kind of approach, which emphasizes the relevance of history to the present, things that do not seem relevant receive little attention, which results in a misleading portrayal of the past. “Whig history” or “whiggishness” are often used as synonyms for presentism particularly when the historical depiction in question is teleological or triumphalist.[2]

“A large burly man,

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very English in appearance…”

There is a fellow on Gab who posts a daily Project Gutenberg Release notes to the Old Books group. This one naturally caught my eye (orig. published 1899).

It is a bibliography, with many annotated entries.

Church, by the way, also wrote The Iliad for Boys and Girls (1907) that we in all due time will come to in Miss Missy’s School Days (the second in the series). Before we come to Church, however, there are 16 pages listing the works of G.A. Henty (1832-1902).

If you, as I, have never heard of Henty, do not despair. Instead, consult your copy of British Authors of the Nineteenth Century (Kunitz and Haycraft, 1987, 1st 1936) where you will learn that in addition to being a “large burly man,” he was a man of great adventures– the Suez Canal, Franco-Prussia War, Russian conquest of Kiev. If it was happening, Henty was there. With several adult novels using these scenes as backdrops, in 1868 he wrote his first novel for boys, Out on the Pampas. All told, he wrote 80 such books spanning times and places from ancient Egypt to his own day.

As a whole, Henty’s work in this field is distinguished for its comparative sobriety, its clear style, and that quality to which proudly Henty referred as “manly tone.” His popularity among boys has declined, but he is still widely read and by no means has been forgotten by those adults who like a good adventure story and remember the books they enjoyed as children.

Kunitz and Haycraft (1987, 1936)

What do we know of Henty today? Let us consult that infallible source. My, my, my. Apparently his work is popular with homeschoolers and so there must be a “Controversial Views” section to his entry, mustn’t there be? Indeed there is. Five-hundred-seventy-four words, including the remarks of that great literary critic, Rachel Maddow who calls Henty– writing in the mid-nineteenth century– “spectacularly racist.”

[“Influence” and “Bibliography” sections combine for 322 words.]

How hard is it to say the following words? Kids, this is a great adventure story. You’ll learn some geography and history by reading it. It was written a long time ago, and some of the words and characterizations of people that are in it we now consider inappropriate.

Pleased to announce that my library does contain some Henty.

Flammable

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I know nothing of art. I imagine that this piece checks a bunch of compositional boxes. But dude! All I see is the entire scene going up in flames.

From The Sunday Morning Book Thread at Ace of Spades Headquarters where there are a lot of book recommendations.

The Innocent Beginning

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As we approach the publication (finally, I hope) of Miss Missy’s School Book I: A Pack of Farm Dogs Starts a School, I thought it might be fun review how this project got started. I’d need to do more research than I have time for right now, but below is one of the earlier conversations among Missy, Rocky, and I.

Back then, I just typed out dialog. There were no “He said,” “She said.” I’ve added a few to keep things straight. There also was no standardization of Rocky’s various “Ruffs” as there are now. And the whole thing needs a good edit– but you’ll get the idea.

This is also one of the fairly rare times we discussed current events. Shutting down national parks. What innocent times.

What’s Next? Dog Parks?

Published on October 2, 2013

I took the dogs out later than usual this morning. They had a great run! After we finished up our post-run chores, I sat down to peruse the World-Wide-Web and we got into a conversation.

“What are you finding?”

“Ruff?” Rocky was curious, too.

“Well,” I said, “there’s still the idiocy of shutting down unmanned National Parks. We talked about that earlier.”

“RUFF!?!” Rocky still couldn’t believe the stupidity.

“Yes, I remember. You were in a bit of a snit about that this morning,” Missy said.

“Yes. I hope I didn’t upset you,” I replied.

“Oh. Not at all. We’ve learned turpitude really ticks you off.”

“Ruff! Ruff!”

“But I have a question,” Missy said. “They won’t be shutting down any dog parks, will they? I only ask because from what you’ve told us about the differences between country and city life, I can imagine those City Dogs must really love their dog parks. Poor dears.”

“RUFF?!” Rocky knew all about city dogs from British Detective Novels. He was glad he was not a city dog.

“I don’t think there’s any danger of that happening, Missy. To the best of my knowledge the National Parks Service isn’t in the dog park business… yet. And no, Rocky, they can’t close your pastures just because you run in them. As I understand it, a park has to receive federal funding before it can be shut down. We receive no federal funding– in fact, quite the opposite, we pay the Treasury— so you’re safe.”

“Ruff?”

“How can you say this with such certainty, Marica? You always say, ‘There’s no tellin’ what they’ll do’.”

“Rrrrufff!”

I cleaned my desk in 2018!

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I have no original thoughts this morning so I wondered what I was thinking around this date in years past. And look what I found! At the end I comment on cleaning my desk. I actually remember doing this. It was over loaded with books. What’s amazing is that I’ve managed to keep it underloaded. The nearby rolling cart stacked with books was a great idea.

Enjoy!

Little Mathematics Library

Published on September 25, 2018 

Smaller than half a sheet of 8½ x 11 paper. Fewer than 70 pages! And for real printed in the USSR (second printing, 1984).

Look what poor quality paper. I even inserted a blank sheet of paper under that page to get rid of some of the bleed through.

I do believe it’s the only book I have which is actually from the Soviet Union.

Wow. This is interesting. Amazon says it has one used paperback from $999.49.

Good Lord!

That’s from BookFinder.com. The only one that’s a real match (1984 not ’86; Mir not Pubn) is at Abe. My copy is in very good condition. No rubbings or markings.

We all know about the used book market, but this is somewhat surprising. I guess maybe I should put it some place where it won’t get rained on. (jk)

What’s that? Game Theory? Oh. Right.

If you think that’s something, you should see the topology of the diagrams of Methods for Solving Some Infinite Games.

As you know, here on the Farm we like us some math– even got us some equations written on the kitchen walls. I made it to page 20 or so. I’m sure Mr. Big Food could plow through the thing in no time. He likes Game Theory.

Welp. That’s it. My desk is clear except for the books which call my desk home. And that crappy old (1953) dictionary I like to keep handy.

Carry on!