The Children’s Corner

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  • Pilgrims
  • and Indians
Bountiful

As you can see, Daughter C outdid herself. Lovely, don’t you think? The weather is forecast to be very Thanksgivingy– Southern Country Mouse-wise. One or two Thanksgiving orphans will join us. Traditional menu, though not sure what Daughter C and The J-Man are bringing. Table is set. Well. Okay. Underneath all of the dishes & such I pulled out for last Sunday’s brunch that still need to be put away, the table is set. Still need to buy some wine but I’ll get to that in S’ville later today. Still need to peruse some Bradford and Longfellow but they are out & open. 

We’ll eat earlier than usual so as to accommodate the traditional devouring of the feast at the Dining Table, and the Egg Bowl which kicks off at 6:30. This is not a day for feasting in front of the telly. 

I am sad to report that Mr. Big Food has made one very none traditional decision with respect to the menu this weekend. For some reason– and I’m not entirely sure there was a legitimate reason– we had gumbo last week. I wondered about it at the time but said nothing. And so, we will not be having Turkey Gumbo on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Instead we’ll have Turkey Sopa I (that’s Roman numeral 1, indicating that Mr. Big Food has more than one turkey sopa recipe in The Big Food Manual and Survivalist Flourishing Guide) with Ro*tel Green Beans. 

Other than that minor aberration, it should all be very Traditional. 

Tradition

Supposed to be chilly over night so as is our Tradition, Daughter C & The J-Man will light a fire next to the Children’s Corner and we will– hopefully– watch State beat Ole Miss in Oxford as we eat pie.

Here’s hoping that you’re well on you way to a Traditional Thanksgiving weekend (unless of course if you used to live in Paradise, in which case we wish all y’all the best). 

The day after | It’s O.V.E.R

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  • The remains of the drink and app table
  • To be put away

In honor of our honored guest, The Frenchman, and to celebrate the end of 12 weeks of travels, tailgates, Farm guests, travels, tailgates…, we had a nice little brunch yesterday. I did not have time to print a menu but if I’d had, this is what it might have looked like

Unprinted menu

Please do note the [PAUSE]

This is the first post I’ve written using the new WordPress editor, Gutenberg. If I recall, in the classic editor one could insert symbols and special characters. Not immediately obvious where that function is in Gutenberg. 

Anyway, please do note the use of alternating alphas and betas for the design aspect of the unprinted menu. I thought it was inspired.

Note to Self

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No matter how good the Brunch food is– and it was excellent– self should not over indulge in Bloody Marys and Champagne.

Please note. 

Quote: There’s a Frenchman on the Farm!

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We have a houseguest! And if you’re thinking, “Then, I bet they went to Oxford,” you are correct! First Square Books, then Off Square Books. What a find I found! A ninth edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (1891).

The 1st edition, 1855, John Bartlett self-published. The ninth edition, I learned, was the last that Bartlett would edit. The 10th would not appear until 1914.

What little I can find that’s not just world wide web babble or from that infallible source is interesting history. I’ll not bore you with it right now, though.

Instead, let’s take a look at a very quotable American and ask how the inclusion of his utterances differs between 1891 and 2002. (I do not have the latest edition which is 18th (2012). I’m using the 17th.)

There are 24 Benjamin Franklin quotes in the 9th edition; 59 in the 17th. By my count, of those 59, 17 appeared in the 9th (28%). Five appearing in the 9th did not make it though to 2002.

Plough deep while sluggards sleep.
Never leave for tomorrow which you can do today.
He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.
A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone.
Vessels large may venture more, but little boats should keep near shore.

Quotes come and go in Bartlett’s, which, I suppose, is as it should be. But with an emphasis on including that which is familiar, how are the second and third quotations above not familiar? They are to my ear.

Is dot gov going to get something right?

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Mr. Big Food brought me my coffee this morning and returned to the kitchen for some breakfast and his work-morning interaction with Joel. I heard him yelling “No!” at Joel and then he popped his head back in the bedroom door and said, “It’s going to snow tomorrow.”

I made my way to a second cup just as Joel was coming back on so I stood beside Mr. Big Food and sure enough Joel said it was going to snow tomorrow.

windy.com:

wunderground.com:

weather.com:

weather.gov:

 

This man is made of better stuff than I

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Gerard VanderLeun, of Paradise, California, is the proprietor of American Digest. AD is a blog I just recently discovered. It’s everything a blog I like should be.

This is his most recent comment on the post titled,

Site Notes: There’s a Substantial Fire to the East (Evacuation Orders Issued for Town)

I tear up just thinking about losing my library. And I’m not one to tear up easily. He’s got a tip jar at the blog, if you’re able.

A travelogue of sorts

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Our day began at 5:00am pacific.

Our day effectively ended at 10:48pm central with the sure death of our 7′ Okra Tree. It was sad to see as I walked outside to get some fresh Mississippi air after over a week gone. There were storms last night here. It’s November. Okra trees are not going to last forever.

In the meanwhile we waited at the gate in Seattle because of a mechanical failure that had gone unnoticed until the plane was ready to leave the gate.

How does that happen? We have mechanical failures all of the time– engines that sound funny when they are cranked, burners that don’t light as fast as they should–  and they do not go unnoticed. They go ignored, but they do not go unnoticed.

Mr. Big Food thinks that paying passengers should be rewarded $5 for every time someone who works for Delta says. “We’re sorry.”

Anyhoo… . We made it to ATL but not without incident.

Continue reading →

Living fossil

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Species from the genus Horsetails. The only extant genus in the class Equisetopsida. Kingdom. Order. Phylum. Genus. Species. There are about 20 species in this genus. According to that infallible source, this species’ common name is Rough Horsetail.

Equisetopsida reproduce not by seeds, but by spores. That’s correct. A seedless plant. A living fossil.

There was a whole field of them behind the cottage where we stayed a few days ago.

Here’s another clue! It feels very much as if I am among the living dead when I walk on the city streets.

Not Mississippi

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The giveaways:

Top photo: That’s not my leather sack; it’s my new water repellent nylon/polyester pack in front of my new water repellent long puffy coat.

Bottom photo: That’s not the Mississippi Gulf Coast; it’s the Pacific Ocean.

Other than that, it’s Halloween night in a small town with very little wifi, lots of rain and very friendly people. Rural America. Go figure!

Unarmed

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Blue = CCW permit reciprocity with Mississippi; Red = states that do not recognize the US constitution

So I see today– at least this part of today– we are going to talk about being armed. I’ve been thinking about that very thing the last few days. Not because of Pittsburgh, though. Turns out one cannot take a gun on an aeroplane. Nor can a Mississippi concealed carry permit holder legally carry a gun in 17 states or the District of Columbia. This of course is bull hockey but it is what it is.

Aside– perhaps more distressing is that I will not have a knife in my pocket for many many hours. My knife is an appendage. I pulled my knife out two or three times at the tailgate and I know Mr. Big Food did, too. Handy little gadgets.

 

You people are nuts

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We’ve just returned home from our final tailgate. It was exceptional. We fed 200+ people and ran out of Texican food.

That’s Matt pulling Mara in the cart we use to move things from the tailgate site to the tailgate trailer. It was her idea to ride in the cart. She’s a bit of a prima dona show off. And we’re going to excuse her, because she’s just finished a poster for PSA (Philosophy of Science) and has a paper she needs to abstract to get on the SPP program… . Hey! She wants to be a philosopher. It’s hard work. She’s entitled to some fun.

Matt wants to be a philosopher, too. He’s a bit more lowwww key.

Anyway, we’ve just gotten home from a spectacular Tex-Max feast tailgate created and served by us. So Mr. Big Food & I had boiled hot dogs and tater tots for supper. At home. With a bourbon.

And as we decompress– it ain’t easy feed ing 200 + people– and swap stories and do what long married couples do after a successful tailgate– we reflect.

We are pleased that so much food got eaten.

But among the 200+ we– Libertarian/ Localists | Localist/Libertarians– are a minority on a college campus. But the food is good. So none of this matters.

Until we got home and ate our hotdogs and tater totes and logged on to that there internet and saw that you people are nuts.

Why are people doing this?

 

Reasoning about Wealth

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A while ago I bought a new spring-loaded lid wastebasket for the kitchen. The old one had just a smidge too much duct tape holding it together. Unfortunately– and although it was pretty pricey (~$70?)– I did not do enough research on this online purchase. Turns out, the inner canister is not sized for regular trash bags. It did come with some complimentary special sized bags which fit perfectly. But one must order them from the trash can manufacturer and they ain’t cheap. Which means one cannot stock pile on sale trash bags from Dollar General.

Yesterday I had a hissy fit about the trash bag dislodging itself from the inner canister and making a mess. Mr. Big Food was good enough to ask what the difficulty was and I explained to him the specialness of the custom trash bags. To which he said, “You know, we can afford the right trash bags. Just get some.”

I replied that the reason we can afford the expensive special trash bags is that we don’t waste money on expensive special trash bags.

This line of reasoning also led me to not pay $60 for a pair of jeans. For crying out loud, they’re jeans!

How is this hard? How do people not get this?

1-2-3-4… 5?

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That is correct. There are five dogs. Jango,* the not lost dog, has taken to hanging out at The Farm a lot.

Yesterday Little Caroline, part owner of Jango, came to the door and said, “Daddy wanted me to come over and find out if Jango made that mess.” I hadn’t been out front until just then and what a mess it was! The stuffing from Tiger’s pillow and a seat cushion covered the yard in front of the grapes. Caroline was very apologetic. I imagine her daddy got after her good for not tending to the dog. I just laughed. He’s a pup. What are you going to do?

Grab a couple of trash bags & clean it up.

*or is it “Django?”